A Jan. 17 report of an additional 1,511 COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes across the state of Michigan is drawing criticism from health officials, FOX 2 Detroit reported.
The report from Michigan's Office of the Auditor General says it identified 7,010 COVID-19 deaths linked to long-term care facilities between Jan. 1, 2020, and July 2, 2021, which totaled 1,511 more deaths than the state had reported.
Officials from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services criticized the findings ahead of its release, arguing the differences between the report and its own totals were because the departments used different definitions when defining long-term care facility deaths. The report also included figures from the Michigan Disease Surveillance System when tallying deaths, which the health department argued was unreliable.
"We were upfront and clear about what deaths were and were not included in our count," the department said in a statement. "The OAG has chosen to use a different definition of a long-term care death than MDHHS is using based on federal requirements. The analysis combines COVID-19 deaths in facilities that were required to report and those that were not required to report, creating the impression of a larger undercount by long-term care facilities than is warranted."