Nine deaths reclassified as related to COVID-19

The Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-coroner’s Office in a letter sent Friday said nine recent deaths are now considered to be coronavirus related after tests showed the individuals tested positive for the virus.

Chief Medical Examiner Michelle A. Jorden in a letter to the Board of Supervisors said 29 people who had flu-like symptoms at the time of their death were tested and nine of those tests came back positive for COVID-19.

“Some of the cases are not yet closed and are not included in the current COVID-19 death count,” Jorden wrote.

That is six more cases of previously undiagnosed deaths than reported earlier this week. On Wednesday, county Health Officer Dr. Sara Cody announced three people who died in February had tested positive for the virus, showing COVID-19 arrived in the Bay Area earlier than officials initially believed.

The first death was on Feb. 6, when Patricia Dowd, 57, died at home. Two other men, a 69-yearold who died Feb. 17 and a 70-year-old who died March 6, also were tested postmortem.

Dowd’s death preceded by nearly six weeks the Bay Area’s officials March 17 stay-at-home order, and weeks before a woman hospitalized in Solano County was identified as the first community transmitted case of COVID-19.

Jorden did not identify the nine people in her letter. The medical examiner said her office has examined 100 people who died of COVID-19. The county health’s tally was 98 deaths as of Friday.

“Please be aware that the deaths reported by the Medical Examiner-coroner may be different from Public Health’s because Public Health’s list is of deaths of persons who are County residents (regardless of where they died) and the (medical examiner) reflects a list of people who died in the County (regardless of where they live),” she wrote.

Records show there are a number of Santa Clara coroner cases still pending, meaning the cause of death is not yet listed.