The US state of Indiana is working to go back and identify every death they think may have been associated with Covid-19 in order to get a more accurate count, according to Indiana Health Commissioner, Dr. Kristina Box.
Dr. Box said the state has tracked cases that go back to at least mid-February, weeks before Indiana’s first reported case in early March.
"There are other individuals that were in the hospital, that may have been discharged with the diagnosis of Covid-19. And that's what we're in the process of trying to make sure that we know all of those individuals, in addition to those deaths," Dr. Box said.
"Because if we only report on the other suspected Covid-19, or presumed Covid-19 deaths, as other states are, but we don't have that underlying number of other people that were sick but didn't die from it, it's going to really inflate that the death rate number for the states.”
Dr. Box said while Indiana should expect to see an increase in deaths posted on Friday as a result of these efforts, the increase will add fewer than a hundred fatalities to the state total.
Indiana today is reporting 394 new Covid-19 infections, and 31 new fatalities, bringing the state’s totals to 12,438 cases and 661 Covid-19 related deaths.