State Says COVID Death Toll Expected To Go Up By More Than 1,000 Monday

The state says Oklahoma can expect the COVID-19 death toll to go up by a little more than a thousand.

The new number should be released Monday and should follow the death count reported by the CDC more closely.

The state health department said this is not due to any error. Health leaders say the CDC number is the most accurate current representation of COVID Deaths in the state.

The State Health Departments number is lagging, because each COVID death must go through a review process before it could be counted towards the death toll.

As part of this data reconciliation process the state says we will see an increase of about 1,053 deaths, plus the addition of 1,366 cases.

"These are cases and deaths that have occurred since the beginning of the pandemic that we have done our due diligence on to assure that they are accurately reported to the CDC," said Stone.

The state epidemiologist says after the numbers are updated Monday, she does not believe there will be any more discrepancies between the state's numbers and the CDC's.