The Ministry of Health and Wellness has expressed that delayed and inadequate reports are making it difficult for it to determine whether deaths are COVID-19 related.

In an interview with Our Today, Dr Ardene Harris, medical epidemiologist at the ministry, said COVID-19 deaths can be difficult to declare, especially if they occur within a community.

“There are challenges in terms of getting the information. We constantly follow up with the health institutions where the deaths may have occurred. But the most challenging ones will be those that would have occurred in communities, where they weren’t in an institution for us to get the full documentation,” she explained.

If the deaths occur outside of a health facility, Harris said the person is brought to the hospital where they are reported as dead on arrival.

But if information is presented to the hospital that the person had symptoms that are COVID-19 related before they died, questions are asked and tests done to determine if the patient died from COVID-19.

The challenge arises when possible COVID deaths are reported late, resulting in them being reflected in later bulletins.

In the latest COVID-19 weekly report for the week on December 6-12, there were five deaths confirmed from December 2020 to October 2021.

“It’s not about confirming the deaths. It’s a matter of when they are reported. We report whatever information we have everyday. If there are reports of deaths coming in after we report yesterday and there are more that’s coming in today, it doesn’t matter if its from 2020 or 2021. Once we are aware of it then we are obligated to report,” she further explained to Our Today.

In addition to the reports being delayed, Harris said inadequate information is also presented, resulting in some cases being under investigation.

“There are new reports coming in with inadequate information for us to [determine if they are COVID related]. So they will go in the ‘under investigation’ pool,” she noted.

The deaths under investigation for each weekly report are new investigations. According to Harris, “it’s not the same deaths that we are saying are under investigation every day”.

When the bulletins are posted, each death under investigation is a new death that the ministry is investigating.

“There are cases where people come in for a certain condition and its just coincidental that they end up COVID positive. But COVID wouldn’t be the cause of death. So we try to gather the information to say was it COVID or not COVID,” she said.

Mpox death under investigation

There is currently one Mpox (formerly known as monkeypox) death under investigation by the health ministry.

When asked for an update on the investigation, Harris said the ministry wa still awaiting the report from the hospital to confirm whether the death was Mpox related.

“So we know that the person had Mpox, and that the person died. But the person had other conditions and died. So, it’s a matter of making that determination. We are waiting on findings and autopsy samples that would have been taken,” she told Our Today.

“We would have expected it already, but we follow up every week and once we receive the reports and make the determination then [the case] would move from under investigation.”

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