DHEC discovers 29 people died of coronavirus that the agency never knew about
The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control says it has discovered 29 people died of the coronavirus that agency officials didn’t know about until the department began cross-checking data.
The department’s finding brings the total number of South Carolinians killed by the virus to 232, a substantial increase from what the agency had reported earlier in the day.
In a news release Wednesday afternoon, agency officials said the deaths occurred from March 25 to April 21. The deaths were not accurately reported by local and state officials who certify deaths, DHEC said.
“As our state continues to respond to this unprecedented event, DHEC remains committed to ensuring that every South Carolinian who has died from COVID-19 is counted,” said Brannon Traxler, an agency physician. “This action aligns with efforts currently underway by other states and will assist us in more fully understanding the burden of this disease across the state and those populations who are most severely affected.”
The previously unaccounted COVID-19 deaths included 8 from Richland County. With those numbers, the county now has had a total of 30 people die of the coronavirus.
Lexington had two coronavirus deaths unaccounted for, raising the county’s death toll from the virus to 14.
Greenville, the state’s largest county, had nine additional coronavirus related deaths. The county now has had a total of 34 coronavirus-related deaths.
DHEC is notified of deaths by a handful of medical personnel. Those include doctors and nurse practitioners. Some deaths also reported to DHEC come from county coroners, who typically investigate deaths that don’t occur in hospitals.
Agency officials said they have previously provided information that outlines procedures for those who certify deaths.
Department officials did not say what the original and incorrect causes of deaths were for the 29 people who were later determined to have died from the coronavirus.
Richland County Coroner Gary Watts questioned how so many cases could have been initially misidentified. His office orders tests through DHEC for anyone who is believed to have died of coronavirus, Watts said Wednesday night. His office then reports that back to the agency.
“The ones we would have certified as COVID-19 that died outside of a medical facility are ones that we would have tested ... that we actually swabbed and sent in to DHEC for test results, and received positive tests results back,’’ Watts said.
Watts said, however, that because testing has been limited, his office only orders tests for the deaths of people who had symptoms of the coronavirus, or that the office suspects may need to be tested.
“We are not testing every person that we handle who dies outside of the hospital, only the ones who were potentially infected,’’ he said. “Does that mean it’s possible there were other ones we didn’t test that could have been positive? Yes. But we weren’t given any information to believe they might have been infected.’’
Laura Renwick, a spokeswoman for DHEC, said the agency found the 29 unrecorded deaths after checking death certificates against the initial calls the agency received notifying the department. DHEC is required to be notified by phone within 24 hours of a COVID-19 related death, but doesn’t receive death certificates for several days, she said.
DHEC officials said crosschecking is also being done in other states. In South Carolina’s case, the agency is trying to make sure its data is accurate.
Since early March, the coronavirus has expanded across South Carolina and infected people in every county. All told, the state has had nearly 5,900 cases of the disease reported.
The state’s major metropolitan areas — Columbia, Greenville and Charleston — lead the state in cases. But some smaller counties, including Clarendon and Kershaw, have been hit particularly hard, as well.
The disease is associated with fevers, difficulty breathing and a loss of taste and smell.
DHEC’s late afternoon news release said the discovery of the 29 extra deaths “does not affect the state’s “public health actions, projections or the recommendations of DHEC.’’
“It’s important to note that we are still discovering more about COVID-19,” Traxler said in Wednesday’s statement. “We will continue to release new information as it becomes available.”
This story was updated from an earlier version.
This story was originally published April 29, 2020 at 6:12 PM.
