UpdatedFri, Jun 4, 2021 at 10:03 am ET
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Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Elizabeth Hertel said Thursday the state has no reason to hide deaths in long-term facilities. (Shutterstock)
LANSING, MI Following reports that the state undercounted the number of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes during the coronavirus pandemic, Michigan s leading health official said the state s numbers are accurate and such claims are erroneous.
Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Elizabeth Hertel said Thursday the state has no reason to hide deaths in long-term facilities, telling lawmakers at a Republican-led House Oversight Committee there was no undercount of such deaths.
State health director: No reason or incentive to try to hide deaths
30 percent of confirmed COVID-19 deaths tied to nursing homes
Elizabeth Hertel
LANSING Michigan s top health official said Thursday that nursing homes are accurately reporting the number of coronavirus-related deaths, amid questions over whether the tally is low.
Elizabeth Hertel, director of the state Department of Health and Human Services, told lawmakers that the facilities have no reason or incentive to try to hide deaths. The Republican-led House Oversight Committee held the hearing after Detroit-area journalist Charlie LeDuff and the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation, which had sued for records, questioned if there is an undercount after noting that the state in the early months of the pandemic traced 648 of 1,468 COVID-19 deaths identified through vital records reviews to nursing homes.
MDHHS Director Says Long-Term Care Facility COVID-19 Death Counts Are Accurate
June 3, 2021
Michigan Department of Health and Human Services director Elizabeth Hertel told state lawmakers Thursday that long-term care facilities have been accurately reporting the number of coronavirus-related deaths.
Hertel spoke before a Republican-led House Oversight Committee hearing Thursday after a Detroit-area journalist and the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation sued for records and questioned if there has been an undercount of coronavirus-related deaths in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.
Michigan has reported 5,663 long-term care residents and 77 staff have died from the coronavirus. That numbers accounts for 30% of confirmed COVID-19 deaths in Michigan.