Local health officials on Thursday said newly reported COVID-19 deaths aren’t necessarily new deaths.
The county’s death toll climbed to 30 Thursday, but that does not mean five people died since Wednesday, when the county reported 25 deaths, said Betsy Swearingen, director of the Johnson County Health Department.
Those numbers are trickling in from various sources, including the Indiana State Department of Health which is technically supposed to get the information first, Swearingen said. When a COVID-19 death comes back, whether it be at a local hospital, senior care facility or reported through the coroner’s office, it should first be reported to the state health department, which then reports it to the county health department. In some cases, the county’s numbers are delayed, she said.
For example, the county health department on Tuesday reported that a 77-year-old Otterbein Franklin resident had died, but that resident actually died on April 4, Swearingen said. The county health department learned about that death this week.
Moving forward, the county health department will only release death demographics once they have been reported by the ISDH, because they may not be new deaths, she said.
The county health department also reported 10 more laboratory confirmed COVID-19 cases, bringing to 361 the number of cases in Johnson County, she said.
The Indiana State Department of Health on Thursday said the number of presumptive positive cases for COVID-19 in the state has risen to 9,542 after the emergence of 587 more cases.
New reported cases have risen for the past two days, with 428 on Wednesday and 291 on Tuesday.
The state said Thursday that the cumulative death toll in the state rose to 477, up from 436 the previous day—an increase of 41 deaths.
Deaths and positive cases are not always reported to the department immediately, which means the numbers can move inconsistently day to day.
The department reported the state’s first case on March 6.
The state reported that 51,115 people have been tested so far, up from 48,396 in Wednesday’s report. The ISDH said the test numbers reflect only those tests reported to the department and the numbers should not be characterized as a comprehensive total.
Indianapolis reported 3,320 cases—up from 3,204 the previous day, an increase of 116 cases. The state reported 164 cumulative deaths in the city, up from 155 in Wednesday’s report. The state said 16,604 people have been tested.
As for surrounding counties, Hamilton had 520 positive cases; Hendricks 378; Boone 136; Hancock 127; Madison 283; Morgan 108; and Shelby 86.
Every Indiana county has at least one case.
Health officials say Indiana has far more coronavirus cases—possibly thousands more—than those indicated by the number of tests.
As of Thursday morning, 640,014 cases had been reported in the United States, with 31,002 deaths, according to a running tally maintained by health researchers at Johns Hopkins University & Medicine. More than 52,770 people have recovered.
More nearly 2.1 million cases have been reported globally, with 139,419 deaths. More than 528,000 people have recovered.
The Indianapolis Business Journal contributed to this report.
