West Virginia governor announces 168 unreported COVID deaths

West Virginia governor announces 168 unreported COVID deaths

SeattlePI.com

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CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice announced Wednesday that an estimated 168 coronavirus deaths went unreported, throwing into question the data that officials used to justify lifting pandemic restrictions.

Justice said officials discovered that 70 facilities — mostly hospitals and nursing homes — did not report the deaths to the state's health department. The Republican governor on Monday had heralded a sharp drop in COVID-19 deaths since the beginning of the year, metrics health officials cited to support the governor easing restrictions on businesses.

“This is absolutely not acceptable,” Justice said. “I'm really sorry.”

Dr. Ayne Amjad, the state's health officer, said officials are waiting to find out if there are more unreported deaths. She blamed it on facilities not filling out death reports online to the state's health department in a timely matter.

“We are trying to find a way to hold people more accountable and their feet to the fire, because we want numbers faster,” she said. “We do not want to have numbers like these again.”

The health department’s public data currently shows 2,330 total deaths — which does not include the 168. Coronavirus cases and hospitalizations declined over the past two months, according to current state data, which led Justice to lift capacity restrictions on businesses and allow larger social gatherings last week.

Amjad said the state has a list of all the facilities that had not reported deaths, which Justice said should be made public.

Justice revealed the news at his regularly scheduled coronavirus briefing by calling it “very disturbing.” He begins each virtual news conference by reading the ages, gender and home counties of those who have newly died from COVID-19. He said he...

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