How many have died from COVID-19?

Change in reporting rules raised questions about accuracy in Fla.

Are Floridians getting an accurate picture of who is dying from COVID-19 and when?

Not likely.

Florida in August changed its rules for determining whether someone died of COVID-19, moving that responsibility from public medical examiners to the doctors who treated the patients. The change was meant to relieve medical examiners who were swamped with COVID deaths, but it also created inconsistencies in how COVID deaths are documented and raised new questions about the accuracy and timeliness of the state’s COVID-19 death counts.

Florida Surgeon General Scott

Rivkees this week ordered an investigation into delayed reporting of COVID deaths, noting that some are now being reported two months late. A spokesman for Gov. Ron DeSantis questioned how a death could be caused by COVID months after a positive test result. At the same time, health experts say it is more likely that Florida’s COVID deaths, now at more than 16,500, are understated.

Jill Fisch is convinced her 78-year-old mother, Marjorie Levy, died from the virus in her Palm Beach County nursing home. But the doctor listed “natural causes” as the cause of death on the death certificate. Fisch said her mother tested positive for the virus on Sept. 29 and died on Oct. 9. “There is no way it wasn’t COVID-related,” she said.

Isaiah Clark, owner of Bell & Clark Funeral Home in Riviera Beach, said several times he has been told a deceased person is COVID-positive when he arrives to pick them up at a hospital, only to find no mention of the virus on the death certificate. “It has become a mess whether they want to admit it or not.”

The true cause of death

The shift from the medical examiner to the treating physician