Florida's Department of Health will conduct a "thorough review" of coronavirus deaths reported across the state, Surgeon General Scott Rivkees announced Wednesday.
State leaders say the death data reported to them is consistently confusing and warrants "a more rigorous review."
"Of the 95 fatalities reported to the state yesterday, 16 had more than a two-month separation between the time the individuals tested positive and passed away, and 11 of the deaths occurred more than a month ago," the Florida Department of Health wrote in a news release.
In five cases, there were at least three months between the time the people tested positive for coronavirus and the time they died, the state said.
"During a pandemic, the public must be able to rely on accurate public health data to make informed decisions," Dr. Rivkees wrote in a statement. "To ensure the accuracy of COVID-19 related deaths, the Department will be performing additional reviews of all deaths. Timely and accurate data remains a top priority of the Department of Health.”
Pubic health professionals, like Dr. Marissa Levine of USF Health, are supportive of reviews like this one.
“We should be constantly reevaluating what we report and how we report it," Dr. Levine said. "Being very transparent about why we're making the changes and what the benefit of doing that, is that's really the critical take home.”
She says this also underscores the importance of all daily COVID-19 data the state releases.
“There lots of people looking at this data for different reasons. So the health care system folks are looking at it to try to make sure that they have adequate resources, and they can plan effectively," Dr. Levine said. "Even employers would be looking at it to know how it might impact their business, or what they might need to be doing differently.”
And on an individual level, daily data also makes an impact.
“Individually, we make decisions, as we're all trying to figure out how to make sure we decrease our risk based on what's happening in our own community," Dr. Levine said.
Click here for a breakdown of the death data reported to the Department of Health on Oct. 20.
Click here to see Florida's latest COVID-19 data in context.
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