'Grim Milestone' As Cook County Death Cases Top 2019: Preckwinkle

EVANSTON, IL — As deaths in the United States recently topped 100,000 due to COVID-19, hundreds of coroners of and medical examiners' offices across the nation have been handling significantly larger workloads than normal. In Cook County, Board President Toni Preckwinkle said Wednesday the county has now surpassed all the deaths it handled in 2019.

Last year, the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office determined cause and manner of death in 6,274 cases. In 2020, the office has already handled more than 6,600 cases to date. The office has also confirmed approximately 3,700 COVID-19 deaths since the first known death from the virus on March 16. In order to keep up with the exponentially higher caseload, some personnel have worked 16-hour shifts and others have worked seven days a week, according to Preckwinkle.

"I am so grateful to the personnel at the Medical Examiner’s Office who have worked around the clock since March to keep up with a mounting caseload," Preckwinkle said in a statement. "The men and women who are tasked with chronicling these deaths have one of the most difficult jobs during this pandemic."

In Evanston, there have been 42 coronavirus-related deaths among residents since first death in town, a resident of the Three Crowns Park retirement community, died March 23, according to the medical examiner's office.

There were 14 deaths in Evanston in April and there have been 27 so far in May. According to data from the medical examiner's office, more than 86 percent of Evanston residents to die have been over the age of 70 and 55 percent have been male.

Nearly 70 percent of Evanston's deaths were listed as white and more than 16 percent were black — directly proportional to the latest available Census numbers. Four residents who died were classified as Asian, with one of them listed as Hispanic, while two deaths listed the person's race as "other."

Illinois Department of Public Health provisional data released Friday show 18 of the deaths among resident and staff at long-term care facilities in the city. Countywide, about 40 percent of fatalities have occurred in such facilities.

• The Grove of Evanston — 8 deaths, 26 cases
• Three Crown Park — 6 deaths, 37 cases
• Aperion Care Evanston — 1 death, 19 cases
• Symphony of Evanston —1 death, 12 cases
• Greenwood Care-Evanston — 1 death, 8 cases
• Alden Estates of Evanston — 1 death, 4 cases
• Westminster Place — 0 deaths, 11 cases
• Albany Care — 0 deaths, 6 cases
• The Mather Evanston — 0 deaths, 4 cases
• Dobson Plaza — 0 deaths, 3 cases

Illinois Coronavirus Update May 28 — Don't miss updates about the Evanston's response to COVID-19 — Sign up for Evanston Patch news alerts and newsletters.

According to Preckwinkle, to ensure that Cook County's decedents are "treated with dignity," the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office has worked with Cook County Department of Emergency Management and Regional Security to acquire a surge center to expand morgue capacity and ease hospital morgues due to COVID-19.

Preckwinkle estimated the county's indigent coordinator has worked with hundreds of families throughout the pandemic to assist in making final arrangements for loved ones.

"I thank our dedicated team who realizes how critical our role is in this pandemic and take that responsibility very seriously," Chief Medical Examiner Ponni Arunkumar said. "The decedents under our care are treated the way we’d want our loved ones to be treated. It’s a guiding principle in our office."

Even before the pandemic began, the Medical Examiner’s Office had started to see a dramatic increase in caseload, according to Preckwinkle. The office has handled close to 700 cases above last year’s total at this time in addition to COVID-19 deaths.

Arunkumar attributed much of the increase to opioid toxicity. There are already 503 confirmed opioid overdose deaths this year. This does not include the 567 cases that are currently pending. Of those, Arunkumar estimated 70-80 percent will be confirmed as opioid overdose deaths as well. There were 689 opioid overdose deaths confirmed during the same period last year.