BRANSON, Mo. (KY3) –
The Taney County Health Department (TCHD) confirmed the total number of deaths of Taney County Residents due to COVID-19 jumped by nine to 28.
Taney County Health Director Lisa Marshall said her department started digging into the reported COVID-19 death count weeks ago, after noticing some things just didn’t add up.
“We found that there was a difference in the number of reports we were receiving of deaths versus what the state health department had and also with a bit of a difference with the Taney County coroners office,” Marshall said.
Several of these deaths date back to mid-August. Health leaders announced the deaths after an exhaustive reconciliation of death certificate data between TCHD and the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (MODHSS) and following review and confirmation by the Taney County Coroner’s Office.
“It’s important that our community knows what’s going on, we want to make sure that they are informed and a total difference of nine,to us, is a big difference,” Marshall said.
In an effort to assure the release of accurate information, the announcement was delayed until all three entities could confirm that the deceased were residents of Taney County and the cause of death was COVID-19.
Now numbers on both state and county dashboards are the same. Marshall said some of the confusion comes down to how death certificates are processed.
“Sometimes they process at the local health department level, sometimes they go to the state first and sometimes, frankly we will hear about something before one of the other offices does because we’re a local entity,” Marshall said.
She said accuracy is important, but can lead to reports being delayed.
“We also didn’t want to release information that wasn’t correct,” Marshall said. “Sometimes we do get cases that don’t belong to Taney County and sometimes we get deaths that aren’t COVID-19 related deaths, so wanted to make sure all of that information added up and across the board we were all on the same page and a united front on that number. “
The county is still encouraging people to take preventive measures throughout this pandemic.
“TCHD prides itself on releasing accurate information. Sometimes it takes a little while for the correct documentation to catch up with all parties involved, which is what we have seen happen here,” states Lisa Marshall, Director of the Taney County Health Department. “Ultimately, our goal is to share correct and credible information with our community as quickly as we can confirm its authenticity.”
For more information contact the Taney County Health Department at 417-334-4544, visit our website at www.taneycohealth.org, or like our FaceBook, Instagram and Pinterest pages.
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