Tri-Cities health-related deaths jump 14% over last year

Tri-Cities health-related deaths have jumped more than 14% compared to the first four months of last year.

Data compiled from the Benton Franklin Health District shows that deaths by natural causes — such as disease and old age — totaled 684 this year.

That’s an average increase of about 81 deaths from natural causes for the same four months in 2018 and 2019.

Health officials have linked 50 of this year’s deaths during those four months to the COVID-19 respiratory illness. And, to date, 78 deaths are blamed on the new coronavirus that causes the disease.

Between January and April, there were 684 health-related deaths this year, compared to 609 in 2018 and 596 last year.

Deaths from all causes the first four months of this year totaled 755, including 38 accidents, 17 by suicide and three homicides. The cause of thirteen other deaths are still pending.

The Tri-City Herald requested the data after some readers have questioned if COVID-19 deaths are being inflated.

Some on social media question if health officials are counting deaths, such as the seasonal flu, that have nothing to do with the illness and would have happened regardless of the new virus.

The increase in deaths indicates otherwise.

April, May deaths

Deaths from health-related causes in January and February were about the same for the last three years.

But the data shows deaths jumped in March 2020 by an average of 28 deaths and in April 2020 by an average of 63.

In March 2020 there were 185 deaths from health related causes and in April there were 197.

Last week, the Freedom Foundation alleged that the COVID-19 deaths reported in Washington state have been inflated by as much as 13%.

Its concern is that the state numbers have included deaths based only on an earlier positive test.

However, the local health district officials say they evaluate information on death certificates before reporting a death is caused by complications of COVID-19.

“We are working seven days a week to send out the most accurate and up-to-date information,” said said Chas Hornbaker, epidemiologist for the Benton Franklin Health District.

Death certificate checks

To count a death as caused by COVID-19 the local health district requires that a patient have a positive test for COVID-19.

There has been one exception. No test results were available for one of the earliest known cases when little capacity for testing was available. Although no test was done, the person had close contact with someone who had a confirmed case.

In addition to the positive test, local public health officials also look for the cause of death to be listed as COVID-19 or alternately look for pneumonia or for a lung issue that prevents a patient from getting enough oxygen, Hornbaker said.

In one case a person who had tested positive for COVID-19 and then died was not included in the death count maintained by the local health district because the person’s death certificate did not indicate any causes or contributing causes that appeared to be linked to the disease.

The argument that deaths are being inflated through incorrect information on death certificates would mean that documents are being falsified, Hornbaker said.

“That is not something that doctors would want to do,” he said.

The state Department of Health said last week that it has about 100 death certificates that say a patient had COVID-19 but did not have a test for the new coronavirus.

It currently is not counting those deaths as caused by COVID-19.

Without a test, state health officials may never know for sure whether those and some other earlier deaths were COVID-19 related, they said.

The first known case in the Tri-Cities was in mid March, but health officials now are considering whether the virus may have been infecting people in Washington state as early as December.

The Associated Press reported that two people in Snohomish County who remembered being sick in December have since had blood tests showing they had antibodies to the new coronavirus.

Flu deaths

The deaths counted as being caused by natural causes by the local health district include some influenza deaths.

Just four deaths in Benton and Franklin County have been reported in the current influenza season, with the first of those deaths in December, according to the Washington state Department of Health.

Six people died in the previous season and 20 people died in the severe flu season of 2017-18.

Health officials also have been concerned about the number of people who are hesitating to seek help for serious health conditions, including diabetes and strokes, because of fear of exposure to the new coronavirus during the pandemic.

Delays in seeking care are sometimes leading to hospitalizations that could have been avoided with earlier care, according to the Washington State Hospital Association.

Delaying care to manage chronic conditions can also make them more vulnerable to severe COVID-19 symptoms, it said

The Washington State Hospital Association launched a public education campaign this month to reassure people that they can safely get medical care.

Steps to protect patients include separating patients with possible COVID-19 symptoms from others, limiting visitors in hospitals, offering medical checks through phone and video conferences and increased cleaning of healthcare facilities.

This story was originally published May 24, 2020 at 2:22 PM.