Tennessee raises COVID-19 death toll to 20,644 after recent review

The State of Tennessee raised its COVID-19 death toll to 20,644 after a recent review by state officials. The state’s Health Commissioner, Lisa Piercey, said on Wednesday this review precedes a change in COVID death count standards set by the Council of State Epidemiologists, starting in January.

Piercey goes on to say the additional deaths occurred throughout the pandemic, with 70 percent largely linked to the delta variant surge earlier this year. She says some reasons for lagging data include manual death reporting by health care providers and an increase in COVID-related deaths at home, which often trigger investigations that extend reporting time-frames.

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