Special to the Times
After a drawn-out drafting process, the Ohio Department of Health’s top spokeswoman agreed to stamp ODH’s name on a statement with the Ohio NAACP and Commission on Minority Health correcting a myth that racial minorities are less susceptible to COVID-19.
However, communications director Arundi Venkayya clarified in an April 1, 2020 email that ODH would not send out the statement independently because the department is instead focused on the “direct operational response” to the nascent pandemic.
She said CMH could release the statement on its own.
Chip Allen, ODH’s director of health equity who worked to craft the statement with the NAACP and CMH, warned the refusal would send the wrong message. Angela Dawson, CMH’s executive director, said she was concerned as well why would ODH authorize a statement but withhold it from its established networks and unique authority on Ohio’s pandemic response?
2 million Ohioans say they don t plan to get COVID vaccine, including 40% of Black adults limaohio.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from limaohio.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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.
Backlog nearly doubles Ohio’s COVID-19 death toll in November and December
Ohio added 4,275 previously unreported COVID-19 deaths to the state’s count at the end of last week.
The department s Bureau of Infectious Diseases and Bureau of Vital Statistics completed the death reconciliation process for the period of October to December 2020, a department spokeswoman confirmed. That resulted in 4,275 deaths added to the state s toll on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The team is continuing the deep review of the data which will result in some additional fluctuations in the numbers, spokeswoman Arundi Venkayya said in an email.
Clearing the backlog increased Ohio s deaths by 38% – from 11,856 deaths to 16,346. Each death was recorded for the date it occurred in the state s COVID-19 data set.
A total of 4,275 previously unreported COVID-19 deaths were added to Ohio s cumulative total since state officials announced a reporting error last week.