California County COVID-19 Death Toll Lowered by 400 After Counting Method Change

California County COVID-19 Death Toll Lowered by 400 After Counting Method Change
Health care professionals screen people entering the emergency room at Highland Hospital in Oakland, Calif., on March 26, 2020. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Bill Pan
Updated:

The number of COVID-19 deaths in Alameda County, California, fell by about 25 percent after health officials changed their methodology for total mortality count, removing deaths that weren’t a “direct result” of the disease or “in whom death caused by COVID-19 could not be ruled out.”

The county’s COVID-19 dashboard, following an update on June 4 to reflect the total number of COVID-19 deaths using the state’s death-reporting definition, shows that 1,223 deaths were caused by the CCP virus, 411 fewer than it previously reported.
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