Health

Thousands of COVID-19 Deaths Not Reflected on Ohio's Public Data Dashboard

The Statehouse News Bureau | By Jo Ingles

Published February 11, 2021 at 11:30 PM EST

Ohio Dept of Health Director Stephanie McCloud — The Ohio Department of Health is reviewing how thousands of deaths from COVID-19 have been left out the data on the state's coronavirus dashboard. Department Director Stephanie McCloud has refrained from commenting publicly on the issue until after the review has been completed.

There was a huge jump in COVID deaths on the state’s coronavirus dashboard, and more big bumps are coming in the next few days.

As many as 4,000 deaths will be added into the overall total, which Ohio Department of Health Director Stephanie McCloud says comes from a problem discovered in the past couple of days.

“We are starting our standard administrative review process as to how the issue arose and why it was not flagged sooner, and I’m really not able to comment on anything more than that until that’s completed," McCloud said.

Feb. 11, 2021, Ohio Department of Health coronavirus dashboard — The Ohio Department of Health's coronavirus dashboard data from Thursday show a jump in the number of deaths.

McCloud suspects part of the problem is because there are two points of entry for death data. This is not the first time the agency has dealt with sluggish data. Last fall, COVID cases lagged behind because of incomplete data from local health departments.
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