Ohio No Longer Reporting COVID-19 Deaths Daily

COLUMBUS, OH — The Ohio Department of Health will no longer share COVID-19 mortality data from the Ohio Disease Reporting System.

Instead of reporting a daily COVID-19 death count, that information will now be shared only twice weekly. To prevent further errors in COVID-19 death calculation, the state health department plans to only use death certificate data from the Electronic Death Registration System (EDRS).

The transition to the EDRS could create significant lags in COVID-19 death reporting, with some deaths taking up to 6 months to confirm. The Ohio Department of Health said deaths will frequently take one to two months to determine cause of death.

“The Ohio Department of Health is committed to sharing information as quickly as possible – but not at the price of accuracy. That is why, as we move forward, we will be reporting the ‘gold standard’ of data from EDRS. The mortality data will be more accurate,” explained Ohio Department of Health Chief Medical Officer Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff.

Over the past two months, the state has had to reconcile its COVID-19 death count. In early February, officials discovered 4,000 uncounted COVID-19 deaths. The Auditor of State's office found the deaths were underreported, not the Ohio Department of Health.

Since the pandemic began, nearly 17,000 Ohioans have died from COVID-19, according to the state health department.

“Early in the pandemic, Ohio recognized the need to be transparent and report data as quickly and accurately as possible. We knew the citizens of Ohio needed to know about the spread of COVID-19 statewide and their communities,” said Ohio Department of Health Director Stephanie McCloud.