ADS death count will be updated in Oct. 20 epidemiology report, CDC provisional death count will remain the same
OKLAHOMA CITY — Deputy Commissioner Keith Reed issued the following statement regarding the OSDH annual review of COVID-19 data:
“This update in COVID-19 data won’t change the typically reported total death count Oklahomans are familiar with. The update will only adjust the OSDH Acute Disease Services (ADS) investigated deaths and will bring the total OSDH count, reported in the weekly epidemiology report, more in line with the total CDC count. It will not change the total number of CDC provisional deaths, which is the number that OSDH has primarily been using for reporting.
As we have done since January 2021, we will continue to rely on the CDC provisional deaths as the primary publicly reported number. Moving forward the discrepancy between these two numbers should remain minimal. However, there will always be a slight difference between these two numbers because of the different processes CDC and OSDH ADS use to investigate and report deaths.
As a reminder, the OSDH reconciled COVID-19 numbers will be officially reflected on Wednesday, Oct. 20, in this week’s epidemiology report and updated on the state’s COVID-19 data dashboard with the usual weekly update.
This is an annual process that every state goes through for a number of communicable diseases, in accordance with CDC reporting standards. For more information about this review process, click here.”
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