Columbia/Boone County Health Department to work closely with state for more accurate COVID-19 data

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Columbia/Boone County Health Department plans on updating its system of gathering coronavirus data to make sure local numbers match those that the state has recorded.

The department announced Wednesday that 25 additional COVID-19 related deaths have been recorded, for a total of 116 deaths in Boone County since the start of the pandemic.

A spokeswoman for the department, Sara Humm, said that those 25 deaths happened between the months of November 2020 to April 2021. Humm said the reason for the sudden addition is because of the reconciliation that the county has done with the state's system.

"When doing that reconciliation with the state's data, we found there were some deaths recorded by the state that we did not have and we want to make sure our systems are as up to date as possible," said Humm.

According to Humm, a COVID-19 related death is one that lists COVID-19 as a contributing factor on someone's death certificate. The health department records deaths that have a PCR confirmed test and antigen test. The state on the other hand only does PCR confirmed tests so the numbers will still be slightly different going forward.

Humm said the additional deaths means that more families in the Boone County area have been impacted by the pandemic.

"Our thoughts are with the family and friends of those people have been lost from COVID," said Humm.