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      1. 211info COVID-19 Information & Resources
      2. General COVID-19 Information
      3. All About COVID

      COVID-19 Related Deaths

      This information is subject to change. Please double check sources and continue to monitor them for up to date information.

      Daily Updates 

      The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) is part of the statewide response working to address and reduce the effects of COVID-19 on the lives of Oregonians. Data presented on this page are from the OHA COVID Response and Recovery Unit (CRUU).

      This page has various data comparisons for the rate of death from COVID-19 within the State of Oregon. Data includes: Deaths by Week (hospitalization status and age group); Median Length of Illness; Deaths by day and Congregate Living Status. There are quick facts along the top and right-hand side of this webpage.

      Totals by week and State from the CDC

      The provisional data presented on this page include the weekly provisional count of deaths in the United States due to COVID-19, deaths from all causes and percent of expected deaths (i.e., number of deaths received over number of deaths expected based on data from previous years), pneumonia deaths (excluding pneumonia deaths involving influenza), pneumonia deaths involving COVID-19, influenza deaths, and deaths involving pneumonia, influenza, or COVID-19; (a) by week ending date and (b) by specific jurisdictions.

      https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/index.htm

       

      How Oregon Health Authority (OHA) is determining COVID related deaths

      Determining who died because of COVID and who died with COVID (or soon after they had COVID) but of another cause is actually very complicated. Making this determination is not straightforward in many cases, even for the attending physician who knew the most about the person’s medical conditions. In public health, we are looking at health data at the population level, so we must have a simple, objective approach to classifying deaths. We know that there will always be some misclassification, but we have chosen our definition to minimize this and come up with reliable numbers. We simply don’t have resources to do highly detailed analyses of individual deaths.

      OHA follows national infectious disease reporting standards when reporting COIVD-19-related deaths. Our data is not determinative as to cause of death but instead is focused on whether the person had COVID-19. That could be determined by diagnosis by PCR test or based on the definition for a presumptive case or if the death certificate listed a COVID-19 code. The reason for this reporting methodology is because OHA is using this data to track the spread of the disease and to create actionable steps for stopping its spread. Our hearts go out to the families affected by this disease and we aim to ensure that our reporting does nothing to increase their pain. For this reason, we do not report protected health information, nor do we confirm the details surrounding individual cases.

       

      We consider COVID-19 deaths to be: 

        • Deaths in which a patient hospitalized for any reason within 14 days of a positive COVID-19 test result dies in the hospital or within the 60 days following discharge.
        • Deaths in which COVID-19 is listed as a primary or contributing cause of death on a death certificate.

      We count COVID-19 deaths this way because the virus can often have effects on an individual’s health that may complicate their recovery from other diseases and conditions, even injuries, and indirectly contribute to their death. Another reason is because OHA is using this data to track the spread of the disease, and to create actionable steps for stopping its spread.

      We rely on information shared with us by a variety of sources such as local public health departments, health care providers, laboratories, medical examiners and other experts to provide the most accurate case and death data possible to the public. Anyone with a COVID-19 test result within 14 days who dies in the hospital or within 60 days following discharge is considered a COVID-19 death. A COVID-19 death in the community is the death of a confirmed or presumptive COVID-19 case within 60 days of their earliest date of exposure to a confirmed case, the onset of symptoms, or when a specimen was taken from them for testing that later came back positive, or someone for whom COVID-19 was specifically listed as a primary or contributing cause of death on a death certificate. We count COVID-19 deaths this way because the virus can often have effects on an individual’s health that may complicate their recovery from other diseases and conditions, and indirectly contribute to their death. Our data is not based on the specific cause of death, but on whether a person has had COVID-19, which helps us track the spread of the disease in the community and create actionable steps for preventing it.