Category: Methods

The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) counts the number of deaths associated with COVID-19 to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. VDH is using national guidance (released December 2021) to assess COVID-19 deaths. These assessments are made either through the course of local public health department investigation of a COVID-19 case or through death certificate review. VDH counts a COVID-19-associated death if it meets any of the criteria below:

1. For confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases, the case investigator determines that the patient passed away due to COVID-19. This may occur through the review of the patient’s medical record, talking with the patient’s healthcare provider, or talking with the patient’s family.
2. VDH receives a death certificate that is matched to a known confirmed COVID-19 case and:
   • The death certificate specifically lists COVID-19 or an equivalent term as a factor in death
     OR
   • The death certificate indicates that death occurred within 30 days of the specimen collection date for the confirmatory laboratory test and the manner of death on the death certificate is documented as ‘natural’ (as opposed to ‘accident’, ‘suicide, ‘homicide’, etc.)
3. VDH receives a death certificate that is matched to a known probable COVID-19 case and:
   • The death certificate specifically lists COVID-19 or an equivalent term as a factor in death
     OR
   • The death certificate indicates that death occurred within 30 days of the specimen collection date for the presumptive laboratory test or the symptom onset date (whichever is applicable) and the manner of death on the death certificate is documented as ‘natural’ (as opposed to ‘acident’, ‘suicide, ‘homicide’, etc.)
4. VDH receives a death certificate and that person was not previously reported as a confirmed or probable COVID-19 case and the death certificate specifically lists COVID-19 or equivalent term as the primary cause of death. These persons are recorded as probable cases that resulted in death.

VDH does count deaths among people with underlying conditions. In these situations, it is likely that the COVID-19 infection worsened the underlying condition and the two together contributed to the patient’s death. 

Some helpful things to remember about COVID-19-associated deaths:

• Death is one possible outcome of a COVID-19 infection. The number of deaths reported by VDH is a subset of the total number of COVID-19 cases.
• Probable deaths are deaths that occurred in persons previously classified as probable COVID-19 cases or persons with COVID-19 listed as the primary cause of death on their death certificate and not previously reported to VDH as a COVID-19 case.
• There is a delay between a rise in cases and a corresponding rise in deaths.
  • This is partly due to the progression of the disease – on average, death occurs a week or more after a person becomes sick with COVID-19.
  • Each death certificate is reviewed using strict criteria by a subject matter expert which takes extra time.  
• Graphs showing the number of deaths reported by day does not represent when a death occurred.
• There is the option to view VDH’s data on COVID-19-associated deaths by the date of death here, which is a more accurate representation of when death occurred than looking at deaths by the day they were reported.

 

*Originally posted on January 11, 2021.

During the COVID-19 response in Virginia, the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) is reporting public health data in more detail and more quickly than ever before. VDH routinely performs ongoing and comprehensive quality assurance on COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, including those that have been previously reported to VDH. Performing data quality assurance, such as checking for correct addresses, re-classifying cases to align with national case definitions, and other efforts, is important for public health. It helps make sure that data that are reported and presented are as accurate and timely as possible. The data quality assurance steps VDH takes are not new. Public health professionals perform these data quality steps for many health conditions in addition to COVID-19. Because of these steps, it is important to note that all data are preliminary and subject to change.

Checking for Locality of Residence:

One of the data quality assurance steps that VDH takes is checking for correct addresses. VDH initially assigns a case to a locality (county or independent city) based on the patient’s residential ZIP code. In Virginia, some ZIP codes cross between multiple localities. Upon further review of the case, which includes applying geocoding to the residential address, VDH may determine the original locality assigned to the case is not correct. In these scenarios, the case will be re-assigned to the appropriate locality, which may result in a negative count for the original locality and a positive case count in the re-assigned locality.

Classifying a COVID-19 Case: 

To determine if a person should be counted as a COVID-19 case, VDH uses criteria outlined in a national case surveillance definition by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Disease surveillance is foundational to public health practice. It helps understand diseases and their spread and informs appropriate actions to control outbreaks. VDH performs several steps to ensure each COVID-19 case reported in a Virginia resident meets these specified criteria.

Not every COVID-19 case involves a positive test, and not every positive test reported to VDH is counted as a COVID-19 case. Some cases are counted because they show symptoms of COVID-19 and had close contact to another known COVID-19 case as described in the national case surveillance definition. Additionally, there are people in Virginia who have been tested more than once for COVID-19. Some of these people are in higher risk settings such as healthcare or nursing homes, and others are known COVID-19 cases who needed negative tests to return to their normal routine. When a person is tested many times over the course of their COVID-19 infection, VDH reviews all the test results to ensure multiple positive test results for the same infection in one person are not counted as multiple COVID-19 cases. However, there are instances where a person may be counted as more than one COVID-19 case. This may happen when a person tests positive again more than 90 days from the first test, or when a person tests positive for COVID-19 with a different SARS-CoV-2 variant, which could indicate potential re-infection. 

The data quality steps described above may result in changes to the number of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths in your community or within the state. Negative numbers in case counts by report date on the VDH COVID-19 data dashboards may be observed as quality assurance steps are completed.

 

*Originally posted on June 17, 2021.