Stanislaus County coronavirus deaths just took a huge one-day spike. Here’s why.
Stanislaus County officials have discovered that the coronavirus outbreak was more deadly in the past two months than they originally thought.
The county reported 14 additional fatalities in an update Monday. Four of those occurred recently, while 10 were never documented until an audit was conducted with the coroner’s office, county spokesman Royjindar Singh said.
Singh said the 10 deaths from the end of May to last month were never reported to county public health. “They were reported as possible cases, but when the person died, it was not relayed back to public health,” Singh explained.
With the update Monday, the total count rose to 126, or 1.4 percent of the 9,277 cases confirmed since March. The county’s rate of 22.88 deaths per 100,000 population is the fourth worst of the eight counties in the San Joaquin Valley.
Stanislaus County reported 56 new COVID-19 cases on its online dashboard Monday as a decline in testing continued. Daily tests have averaged 534 over the past six days; more than 1,000 tests per day was common before that.
Delays in getting results, and a shortage of nursing staff at the county’s largest test facility, have been cited as reasons for the recent drop in testing.
Singh said some of the COVID-related deaths were missed because of the rapid increase in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in June and July. The county’s rate of infections was much lower in March, April and May.
It may also take longer to verify cause of death for a person who passes away at home, he said. The county will now conduct weekly audits on its data collection.
According to the county, almost 80 percent of coronavirus deaths were people age 61 or older; 17 percent were 41 to 60 and less than six were in the 21 to 40 age group.
By gender, 58 percent were men and 42 were women.
This story was originally published August 3, 2020 at 7:12 PM.
