‘No doubt’ that virus has hit state hard

Over twice as many die in April compared to same month in 2019

While the coronavirus pandemic has been determined to be a factor in thousands of additional deaths in Connecticut in April compared to the same month a year ago, the state medical examiner’s office reported Friday that there are nearly 500 additional deaths that still appear to be unaccounted for.

The data released by Chief State Medical Examiner James Gill late Friday shows that 4,602 deaths were reported to his office this April compared to 1,938 last April — a 137% increase. Much, but not all, of this increase has been linked to COVID-19.

The state Department of Public Health has reported that a total of 2,188 people died from COVID-19related causes in April, and if you add those deaths to April 2019’s total number of deaths, you only get 4,126 — leaving 476 unaccounted for. The medical examiner has not linked COVID-19 to those deaths.

The data doesn’t breakdown into categories of where people died, such as at a hospital or at home, but Gill has said previously that there has been a significant increase in deaths at home and some of those are likely COVIDrelated.

There also was a large increase in the number of cremations.

There were 3,091 people cremated this April compared to 1,611 last year — a 92% increase. Under Connecticut law, all cremations must be recorded with the medical examiner’s office.

“If you wanted conclusive evidence that this isn’t ‘just the flu,’

comparing last year’s and this year’s deaths in Connecticut last month makes it crystal clear,” said Dr. Summer McGee, the dean of health sciences at the University of New Haven.

“Regardless of how many people tested positive or not among these deaths, there can be no doubt that

COVID has hit our state hard,” McGee said. “What percentage of these deaths is COVID and COVID-related is something we will determine in time. We should also capture deaths associated with delays in surgeries and other medical care and classify these as COVID-related as well.”

The medical examiner’s office did 310 autopsies this April compared to 281 last year. Gill said part of that increase is due to autopsies done on people who died at home that were possible COVID-19 cases.

In an effort to better track the number of people dying at home or in nursing homes from the coronavirus, investigators from Gill’s office have been going to funeral homes across the state to get samples from the dead before they are cremated or buried.

The office has done at least 137 tests for COVID-19, of which 73 — more than half — came back positive. The majority of those tests were taken at funeral homes; most of the others were done during autopsies.

So far, the medical examiner has amended 173 death certificates to include COVID-19 as a contributing factor in the person’s death — or about 10% of the COVID-19 deaths as of Friday. Gill said some death certificates were amended without a COVID-19 test “using the recommended probable terminology based on a compelling clinical history,” such as reviewing medical and hospital records.

The numbers in March were not as stark. There were 2,244 deaths this March compared to 2,052 last year. The state didn’t announce its first COVID-19 death until March 18 and the number of total deaths remained in the single digits until later in the month.

Gill said Friday that his office has about 13,000 deaths a year reported to them from hospitals, nursing homes and funeral home directors. Not every death in the state gets reported to his office — he estimates about 30% of them are not.