28th death added to Okeechobee County COVID-19 list

Posted 10/1/20

The Florida Department of Health reported the 28th death in Okeechobee County related to COVID-19 on Oct. 1.

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28th death added to Okeechobee County COVID-19 list

Posted

OKEECHOBEE — The Florida Department of Health reported the 28th death in Okeechobee County related to COVID-19 on Oct. 1. The most recently reported death was of a 78-year-old woman.

Since the pandemic started in March, there have been a lot of questions about how deaths are reported.

At the Oct. 1 meeting of the Okeechobee County commissioners, Tiffany Collins of the Florida Department of Health (FDOH) in Okeechobee County said her office reviews all of the reported deaths.

“There’s been a lot of questions about how the deaths are counted,” said Collins. The health department reviews all of the death records in Okeechobee County, she explained.

“I have looked at every single death record,” she said. Certain causes of death — such as auto accidents — are automatic exclusions and are not added to the numbers on the state FDOH dashboard.

“We’re not calling any accident a COVID death even if they are confirmed positive,” she said.

Other deaths list COVID-19 as the primary or a secondary cause of death. Each death report is evaluated individually, she said.

The deaths are not added to the state report until after the medical examiner has released the report on the death, so there can be a delay from the date of the death and the date the death is added to the dashboard. The dashboard does not give the date of death. The only information that is provided to the public is the sex of the person, the age of the person and the date the person’s COVID-19 positive test was reported. There may be a delay between the day a test is given and the day the results come back, and still another delay between the date the individual receives the test results and the day the results are added to the FDOH dashboard.

As of Oct. 1, Okeechobee County deaths related to COVID-19 included:
• Female, 65, positive test reported June 22;
• Male, 93, positive test reported June 26;
• Male 70, positive test reported June 26;
• Male 63, positive test reported July 4.

• Male, 60, positive test reported July 6;
• Male, 75, positive test reported July 8;
• Female, 79, positive test reported July 9;
• Male, 93, positive test reported, July 9;
• Female, 78, positive test reported July 9;
• Male, 60, positive test reported July 9;
• Male, 60, positive test reported July 10;
• Male, 64, positive test reported July 12;
• Female, 82, positive test reported July 12;
• Female, 83, positive test reported July 16;
• Female, 78, positive test reported July 17;
• Male, 63, positive test reported July 18;
• Male, 91, positive test reported July 30;
• Female, 82, positive test reported Aug. 1;
• Female, 94, positive test reported Aug. 27;
• Male, 77, positive test reported Aug. 9;
• Female, 83, positive test reported Aug. 9;
• Female, 85, positive test reported Aug. 9;
• Male, 93, positive test reported Aug. 19.
• Male, 62, positive test reported Aug. 26;
• Female, 78, positive test reported Aug. 28.
• Male, 96, positive test reported Sept. 1;
• Female, 91, positive test reported Sept. 2.
• Male, 81, positive test reported Sept. 4.

COVID-19, death

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