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Hundreds Of COVID-19 Deaths Went Unreported During LA's Winter Surge

(Courtesy LAC+USC Medical Center)
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While L.A. County health officials say we're now on "the other side" of the deadly winter coronavirus surge, they've confirmed hundreds more deaths from the virus during that time that until now, went unrecorded.

Most of the 806 deaths happened between December 3rd and the beginning of February.

Officials track COVID-19-related fatalities by cross referencing vital records with death report forms submitted by hospitals. But that process, according to public health director Barbara Ferrer, faced significant hurdles, with more than 9,700 deaths logged in December and January alone:

"This was a period, as you all know, where very many deaths occurred across the county, and not all of them were reported to public health because of the volume of records."

The Department of Public Health will update its data and trend lines for that period to account for the deaths that weren't recorded at the time.
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