Health officials in Santa Clara County, California, announced a drop in the county’s
COVID-19 death toll after it refined its data-reporting systems.
After using a new approach to review COVID-19-related fatalities, county officials said the death toll from the virus dropped 22 percent from 2,201 to 1,696 deaths.
Authorities told a CBS affiliate station that it came up with narrower criteria for deaths attributable to COVID-19, which is caused by the
CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, otherwise known as the coronavirus. Officials had previously counted COVID-19 deaths by including people who died while infected with the virus, even if it didn’t actually contribute to their cause of death.
For example, according to the
San Jose Spotlight citing local officials, someone who died in a car crash but had COVID-19 at the time would be counted as a “COVID-19 death.”
“We are constantly trying to get the best information to county residents as soon as we have it,” a Santa Clara County spokesperson told San Jose Spotlight. “In the height of the pandemic in January, we were unfortunately hearing about multiple deaths every day and couldn’t wait the several weeks for the death certificate to notify the public of our community members who were dying.”
Dr. Sarah Rudman, the county’s assistant public health officer, appeared to defend the original counting method during an interview with
the San Jose Mercury News.
The process, Rudman said, was being carried out during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and said it “was the right decision at the time.” She didn’t elaborate as to why.
