By Joshua Huff, sports editor
MONTGOMERY — The Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) announced on Thursday, April 23, that the agency will now follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines in the way that COVID-19 related deaths are listed
The ADPH originally placed COVID-19 deaths into two categories: Confirmed and Reported.
Now, the ADPH will follow the CDC’s National Vital Statistics System’s guidance regarding tracking virus-related deaths across the state. The criteria for COVID-19 death counts will now include people with a positive virus laboratory test along with individuals whose death certificates list COVID-19 or an equivalent as the cause of death.
“As expected, the numbers moved closer to the ‘Reported Deaths’ count and cases increased in some counties as part of the update,” the ADPH posted on Facebook. “Most of these changes in numbers are due to cases that have died but were not previously marked as died from COVID-19.”
The number of virus-related deaths has jumped over the past couple of days as a result of the switch in reporting. Currently, Alabama has 197 COVID-19 deaths with 5,805 positive cases.