COVID-19 Death Toll Drops As Washington Investigates Count

SEATTLE, WA — In the months since the pandemic began, 1,458 Washington residents have died after testing positive for the coronavirus. Initially, the state's death toll included anyone who had the coronavirus and had passed away, but that doesn't account for the cases where someone had the virus yet died for a different reason: a discrepancy that is causing health leaders to rethink how the state tallies the coronavirus death toll.

According to the latest report from the Washington State Department of Health, of those 1,458 deaths, at least 65 have been found to be unrelated to the coronavirus. 9 of the 65 were homicides, suicides or deadly accidents. The remaining 56 were natural deaths where the coronavirus was not a factor. Yet another 92 are deaths where COVID-19 was not named as a factor on death certificates or a cause of death hasn't been determined.

In an attempt to make the death toll more accurate going forward, DOH officials have announced a new system which will sort all coronavirus patient deaths into one of four categories:

• Confirmed Deaths. To be confirmed, the patient must have tested positive for the virus, and their death certificate must list COVID-19 as a contributing or causing factor in the death.
• Suspect Deaths. Deaths where the patient tested positive for the virus, but where the death certificates do not name COVID-19 as a factor.
• Pending or Missing Cause of Death. Cases where a coronavirus patient has passed away, but their death certificate has not been filed, or the cause of death has not been determined.
• Non-COVID Deaths. In this scenario a patient died of unrelated causes, like homicide, car accidents or natural deaths.

After combing through all 1,458 of the deaths, the state has determined that:

• 1,301 are confirmed COVID-19 deaths.
• 67 are suspect deaths.
• 25 are pending deaths.
• 65 are non-COVID deaths.

Health officials do warn that these numbers are likely to change again as more information becomes available. Pending deaths are likely to be quickly confirmed or denied, and suspect cases are being investigated further. To make the process smoother, the state says they've streamlined the process for filing death certificates for COVID-19 patients.

"I do think we've sped up the process about as far as it can go," said Katie Hutchinson, health statistics manager for the Washington DOH. "I'm actually impressed with how fast we've been able to speed this up considering the process for certifying a death."

While the confirmed death toll has dropped because of the rework, the dip could be temporary. The DOH is also working to identify other deaths that may have been caused by the coronavirus, but uncounted.

"It is very likely that there are deaths we are not capturing, and we're trying to figure out how to best capture them," said Hutchinson.

Right now, the DOH says they are looking at 77 other deaths that are "probably" due to the coronavirus, but were in patients who had not tested positive for the disease. Beyond that they'll also scrutinize death certificates where patients died of COVID-19 like conditions like pneumonia or acute respiratory distress.

Related stories:

• Washington Adds 1,101 Coronavirus Cases, Highest Single-Day Total
• Coronavirus Death Toll Drops By 5 As State Rethinks Counts