Oklahoma City – The Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) is in the process of submitting its final COVID-19 2021 case and death numbers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
This process is conducted annually by OSDH, which is similar to other states across the nation.
All states are required to submit final numbers of cases and deaths by specified dates, set by the CDC.
“We want to make sure that we are doing our due diligence to assure our cases and deaths are accurately reported to the CDC,” said Jolianne Stone, the state’s Epidemiologist.
Cases and deaths, reconciled through OSDH epidemiology investigations, will be reflected in the epidemiology reports on Dec. 1, 2022 and Dec. 8, 2022.
There will be an increase of approximately 267 reconciled deaths and 1,354 reconciled COVID-19 cases. To be clear, the deaths to be added into the state’s epidemiology death count, have already been accounted for in the CDC’s provisional death total prior to this data upload.
“Our team has worked to do thorough investigations into Oklahoma death certificates where COVID-19 is listed,” said Stone. “We utilize multiple data points, like the death certificates and the national case definition, to make sure we are categorizing a death appropriately.”
Other data points on the weekly epidemiology report that will have shifts include age, sex and race. Shifts are due to the OSDH team conducting data quality assurance to have the most accurate data to evaluate the effect of COVID-19 over the past few years.
Weekly epidemiology reports can be found here.
The Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) protects and improves public health through its system of local health services and strategies focused on preventing disease. OSDH provides technical support and guidance to 68 county health departments in Oklahoma, as well as guidance and consultation to the two independent city-county health departments in Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Learn more at Oklahoma.gov/health.
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Mailing Address:
Oklahoma State Department of Health
123 Robert S. Kerr Ave., Suite 1702
Oklahoma City, OK 73102-6406
Physical Address:
Oklahoma State Department of Health
123 Robert S. Kerr Ave.
Oklahoma City, OK
Office hours:
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Closed on all legal holidays
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