Here’s why 40 Weld County COVID-19 deaths were reclassified and what that means going forward

Weld County has adjusted how it counts COVID-19 deaths. Photo courtesy of the CDC.

By Kelly Ragan

Weld County now reports 86 deaths due to COVID-19. Just last week it reported 126. What gives?

This week the Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment changed how it’s reporting coronavirus death data in an effort to be consistent with the state. 

On May 15, the state announced it would start reporting how many people died due to COVID and how many people died with COVID.

So, what’s the difference? If someone died due to COVID, that means the virus was directly responsible for their death. If someone died with COVID, that means they were infected with the virus, but it may not be the thing that killed them, though it could have been a contributing factor.  

The state opted to continue reporting both numbers on its website. 

As of Wednesday, the state reported 1,135 deaths due to COVID and 1,392 deaths with COVID.

As it stands, Weld’s website only displays the number of deaths as a direct result of COVID – but that could change. 

“To report both of the categories separately requires a lot of backend work on our end,” said Rachel Freeman, spokesperson for the health department, in an interview with the NoCo Optimist. “It’s something we’re still considering.” 

The health department works with the Geographic Information System mapping department to create all the charts and graphs people see on the page, she said. The GIS team is looking into how it could best represent the data detailing how many folks died while infected with COVID. 

In the meantime, Freeman said, the health department wanted to update the page to match the state’s new standards. 

How is the number verified? 

That work falls to the Weld County Coroner, Carl Blesch, who issues a good chunk of the death certificates. 

But the coroner doesn’t issue all of the certificates, Freeman said. Physicians do, as well, especially at long-term care facilities. 

So, those certificates might not come to the coroner immediately, Freeman said, but the coroner uses a state database to review the causes of deaths not directly reported to him. 

“He’s currently reviewing those on Fridays,” Freeman said. “It might look like there’s an artificial increase in the number of deaths reported on Fridays, but it’s because he’s having to go in and pull out death certificates not directly reported to him.”

Weld also changed how it reports cases  

The total number of case numbers in Weld also fell by about 100 with a change in reporting methods. 

“That was due to the removal of suspected results,” Freeman said. 

A suspect result happens when a positive antibody test is reported to the Colorado Electronic Disease Reporting System, according to a news release. The problem is, it might pick up antibodies from other coronaviruses, such as SARS. 

So, to be consistent with the state, Weld took the suspected results out of the total. 

“We are now only reporting positive results as well as presumed positive or potential positive cases,” Freeman said. 

What does that mean for Weld? 

We aren’t out of the woods yet. The number of deaths due to COVID in Weld may have been revised, but this is still a pandemic – even if people are tired of it. 

“I think people have COVID fatigue – everyone’s feeling it,” Freeman said. “Everyone is just kind of over it.” 

But COVID isn’t over and the preventative measures are still important, Freeman said, even (and especially) as the state begins to reopen. 

Freeman said she recommends folks continue to stick to basic preventative measures: wash your hands, wear a mask, stay 6 feet apart. 

Why did the state change how it reports the data? 

The reason boils down to streamlining the data.  

For public health officials and elected representatives to accurately compare Colorado’s situation with any other state, they have to be measuring the same things.  

State officials say the change in reporting matches up with federal guidance, according to a report by the Colorado Sun, which allows for a quick, apples-to-apples comparison across states. 

Just like with the Weld coroner, there could be a backlog of death certificates that need to be verified. 

According to the Sun, state officials expect the gap in the reported number of deaths caused by COVID and the reported number of people who died with COVID to shrink as they continue to process death certificates. 

Can we trust these numbers? 

During a crisis, it’s important to remember things evolve and change quickly. It’s not unusual for methods to grow and adapt as the situation does.

Back in March, the Weld health department reported out a simple case number and death count, Freeman said. Now, it offers a data dashboard that breaks down age, demographics and cases by ZIP code.  

Weld County isn’t always in control of how the data changes, Freeman said, like what they’ve seen with the state health department or even on the national level with the CDC. 

“It’s not always a straightforward process for a local public health agency,” Freeman said. 

According to the Sun, it could be years before we have a solid understanding of how many people died because of the virus. Delays in testing early on, delays in data processing now and other factors play a role.

So, for now, we can look at two sets of data – the number of people who died due to COVID and the number of people who died with COVID – and we can make a judgement call.