MASSACHUSETTS WILL REVISE its COVID-19 death count downwards by around 3,700 people as the state shifts to using a new definition to count deaths attributed to coronavirus.
“We believe this will provide us a much more accurate picture of who has died associated with a COVID infection in Massachusetts, and it will also improve our ability to compare our data with data from other jurisdictions, other states,” said DPH state epidemiologist Dr. Catherine Brown.
At the very beginning of the pandemic, the state was counting as a COVID death anyone who died after getting a COVID diagnosis. Last April, the state started counting as a COVID-related death anyone who had COVID-19 listed as the cause of death on their death certificate or anyone who did not have COVID listed as their cause of death but who contracted COVID within 60 days of their death. The new definition reduces that time frame to 30 days. State officials will apply the definition retroactively to all prior COVID deaths.
The new approach is being taken based on a recommendation by the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists in collaboration with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The two national organizations are trying to create a standard definition that all states can use to account for COVID deaths.
According to the Department of Public Health, 4,081 deaths will be removed from the state’s COVID death count under the shift. However, state health officials are also conducting a manual review comparing death certificates with medical records, and they have found around 400 deaths that were not listed as COVID-related but should have been. So the total net change will be a decrease of about 3,700.
Meet the Author
Reporter, CommonWealth
About Shira Schoenberg
Shira Schoenberg is a reporter at CommonWealth magazine. Shira previously worked for more than seven years at the Springfield Republican/MassLive.com where she covered state politics and elections, covering topics as diverse as the launch of the legal marijuana industry, problems with the state's foster care system and the elections of U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Gov. Charlie Baker. Shira won the Massachusetts Bar Association's 2018 award for Excellence in Legal Journalism and has had several stories win awards from the New England Newspaper and Press Association. Shira covered the 2012 New Hampshire presidential primary for the Boston Globe. Before that, she worked for the Concord (N.H.) Monitor, where she wrote about state government, City Hall and Barack Obama's 2008 New Hampshire primary campaign. Shira holds a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
About Shira Schoenberg
Shira Schoenberg is a reporter at CommonWealth magazine. Shira previously worked for more than seven years at the Springfield Republican/MassLive.com where she covered state politics and elections, covering topics as diverse as the launch of the legal marijuana industry, problems with the state's foster care system and the elections of U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Gov. Charlie Baker. Shira won the Massachusetts Bar Association's 2018 award for Excellence in Legal Journalism and has had several stories win awards from the New England Newspaper and Press Association. Shira covered the 2012 New Hampshire presidential primary for the Boston Globe. Before that, she worked for the Concord (N.H.) Monitor, where she wrote about state government, City Hall and Barack Obama's 2008 New Hampshire primary campaign. Shira holds a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
As of Tuesday, there were 23,708 confirmed and probable COVID deaths reported in Massachusetts, so the new definition will reduce that by about 15 percent. Most of the deaths being removed from the count occurred between May 2020 and May 2021, when the state was primarily still using its initial, more expansive definition of a COVID death.
The new definition will be reflected in the data published on the state’s website beginning Monday.
SHARE
