Undercounting the Covid-19 Dead

Coronavirus deaths are being under counted by a significant amount.  People who die in their homes have seldom been tested for the virus and are not tested postmortem.  One analysis suggests that as many as 3,174 New Yorkers died in their homes either due to Covid-19 or complications due to the overloading of the city's health care system.

Home deaths are not the only source of Covid-19 undercounts.  Nursing homes deaths due to Covid-19 are certainly being undercounted.  The first major cluster of deaths was at a Washington state nursing home, which gained national attention.  Still nursing home residents are seldom tested for Covid-19 so their deaths are not attributed to the virus.  The AP has been tracking nursing home deaths and has determined as many as 3,600 unattributed Covid-19 related deaths in the last two weeks.

More than 3,600 deaths nationwide have been linked to coronavirus outbreaks in nursing homes and long-term care facilities, an alarming rise in just the past two weeks, according to the latest count by The Associated Press.

Because the federal government has not been releasing a count of its own, the AP has kept its own running tally based on media reports and state health departments. The latest count of at least 3,621 deaths is up from about 450 deaths just 10 days ago.

But the true toll among the 1 million mostly frail and elderly people who live in such facilities is likely much higher, experts say, because most state counts don’t include those who died without ever being tested for COVID-19.