Ohio County Reports 75th COVID-19 Death
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The Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department reported another COVID-19-related death in its Friday night update, the 75th since the pandemic began.
The county's death total jumped between Thursday and Friday after the health department reported eight deaths Thursday night that were among the 165 that had previously not been reported.
Gov. Jim Justice took time Friday to read each of those 165 deaths during his COVID-19 briefing.
"There are days I have to report to you things that are not very pleasant, but this is totally unacceptable to me in every way," Justice said. "We owe all these people respect."
Justice first announced on Wednesday that 168 deaths were not reported to the Department of Health and Human Resources. Since the announcement, two deaths were determined to be unrelated to COVID-19 and one death was a duplicate, bringing the number down to 165.
"I hate like crazy the mistakes that are made and loved ones not respected like we should have respected them," Justice said. "I do not understand the mistakes, nor do I think they're acceptable."
Facilities are required to send a one-page death report to DHHR when the death is due to COVID-19. DHHR's Health Statistics Center within the Bureau of Public Health found the discrepancies when reviewing data compared to death certificates, which often take weeks to complete and turn in.
Dr. Ayne Amjad, state health officer, said the Bureau of Public Health would start reviewing death numbers every week instead of every two weeks to catch discrepancies between the daily death reports and the death certificates.
WOCHD also reported nine new positive COVID cases, bringing that total to 3,871. The Marshall County Health Department had not updated its Facebook page with its latest numbers as of 10 p.m. Friday.
Hancock, Brooke and Ohio counties all were green, the safest category on the DHHR's Friday COVID-19 alert map. Marshall County was yellow, the second-safest category.
In Ohio, the Belmont County Health Department reported a total of 5,415 cases since the pandemic began, along with 65 hospitalizations and 101 related deaths.
Steven Allen Adams contributed to this report.