Matching death certificate data with front-line COVID-19 surveillance data can improve the accuracy of states' COVID-19 death reporting, The Wall Street Journal reported March 14.
States are discovering that they have been underreporting COVID-19 deaths by trying to report deaths in near real time and not through the slower process of using death certificates, according to the Journal.
When reconciling its COVID-19 data reporting by checking various sources in February, Ohio announced it had failed to report more than 4,000 additional deaths. That same month, Indiana said it failed to report 1,507 deaths.
Minnesota said March 9 it had missed 138 deaths, and West Virginia said March 11 it had missed 168 deaths. Virginia also recently announced it had failed to report about 900 deaths.