Computer error led Oregon to miss more than 10 percent of state’s COVID deaths

Oregon Public Broadcasting | By Amelia Templeton

Published October 21, 2021 at 4:09 PM PDT

In this August 2021 photo, visitors peer into the room of a COVID-19 patient in the intensive care unit at Salem Hospital in Salem, Ore. At that time the hospitalization rate of unvaccinated COVID-19 patients was squeezing hospital capacity, with several running out of room to take more patients.

Many more people died of COVID-19 this summer than the state previously reported, according to a press release from the Oregon Health Authority.

The agency said state epidemiologists were unaware of the deaths until recently due to a computer error. OHA said it expects to add about 550 deaths that occurred between May and August to the state’s official total in the coming weeks. That amounts to missing more than 10% of all official COVID-19 deaths in Oregon.

The undercount took place during the worst surge of COVID-19 cases in Oregon since the pandemic began. OHA did not fully explain what the error was or when it was caught, but said it was related to an effort to automate the process of reconciling death records and COVID-19 case reports.

The additional deaths will affect Oregon’s national standing in COVID-19 death rates.