The Ohio Department of Health added 4,275 previously unreported deaths to the statewide count at the end of last week. On Wednesday, the department warned the public that the backlog of deaths would hit all at once after discovering that a single employee erred in reconciling real-time data provided by health providers with death certificates, which can take up to six months to complete according to state law.
Clearing the backlog increased Ohio's deaths by 38% – from 11,856 deaths as of Wednesday to 16,346 on Monday. Each death was recorded for the date it occurred in the state's COVID-19 data set.
The Beacon Journal noticed a major blip in the death count on Jan. 20. The numbers suggested that Summit County had more deaths than Franklin or Hamilton counties, despite having hundreds of thousands fewer residents. Franklin County, at the time, was reporting 17 COVID-19 death a month while Summit County was reporting hundreds.