Second Callaway County COVID-19 death reported

State and county health officials reported Callaway County's second COVID-19 death Thursday. According to the Callaway County Health Department, as of Friday, the county had accumulated 226 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began; 67 cases were active. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services reported a higher cumulative total for the county at 235.
State and county health officials reported Callaway County's second COVID-19 death Thursday. According to the Callaway County Health Department, as of Friday, the county had accumulated 226 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began; 67 cases were active. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services reported a higher cumulative total for the county at 235.

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Another death in Callaway County was attributed to COVID-19, according to Callaway County officials Thursday.

"I'm relatively confident that person struggled for a long time, like weeks I do know they were hospitalized for a while," said Callaway County Presiding Commissioner Gary Jungermann. "I do not know if they had anything (in addition to) COVID-19."

Jungermann could offer no further details on the deceased individual, including city of residence.

"We're still waiting on an official copy of that death certificate," said Sharon Lynch, director of the Callaway County Health Department, adding that can't be sure the death certificate will list COVID-19 as the cause of death. "But we received it, and we decided to report it."

This is Callaway County's second COVID-19 death. The first was reported April 6; while that individual's identity has never been made public, Jungermann said the deceased person had "extreme health issues."

County officials reported a total of 226 cases as of Friday, an increase of 24 cases since Wednesday. Of those cases, 67 were active and 157 recovered, according to Darin Wernig, Fulton public information officer, though an initial post on the CallawayCOVID19.com website claimed 71 active cases and 153 recoveries. Lynch confirmed 67 cases were active (and 157 recovered) as of Friday.

Delayed data

CallawayCOVID19.com, intended by county and city officials to be the public's source for COVID-19 data, was not updated with the new death or current statistics until late Friday afternoon. The other two most recent updates date to Monday and Aug. 13; though they include that day's totals, they don't have data from the missed days between updates.

Callaway County residents have been instructed to rely on the site for the latest numbers: "Callaway County Health Department staff are very busy contacting citizens and cannot answer individual calls requesting counts for our county. Please refer to callawaycovid19.com for the latest counts," an Aug. 17 update states.

"The city (of Fulton) usually updates that; we've had that agreement since day one," said Jungermann. "I'll have to get with the city, see why they're not forwarding that to the site."

Wernig maintains CallawayCOVID19.com on the city's end. His ability to update the website has been hampered by delayed or absent updates from the Callaway County Health Department, he said.

"I think they try to (send the numbers) every day - I guess, I don't actually talk to them," he said Friday afternoon. "So when they're ready to send the information, they send it."

Wernig said he sometimes doesn't receive a daily update. Thursday's came in after he'd already headed home for the day, and Friday he spent the entire morning at the Fulton Mayor's Cup Golf Tournament.

"I didn't see them until much later," he said.

Lynch said she was delayed in sending Thursday's numbers because she had to drive to Columbia to pick up health department supplies.

"I'm not going to pass blame - everybody's doing the very best we can," she said. "I know there's been days I've missed, but there haven't been many."

Fulton numbers

Friday's CallawayCOVID19.com update lacked specific data for Fulton. Fulton city officials have repeatedly asked to receive data on the number of cases present among Fulton residents.

"Right now, we don't know how many people in Fulton are affected," Ward 1 City Council member Ballard Simmons said Wednesday. "We need good, solid data to see if we need a mask ordinance."

Lynch has maintained providing city-level data would violate federal health privacy law HIPAA. However, during a Wednesday meeting between Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services Director Dr. Randall Williams and city and county officials - at which Lynch was present - Williams said providing city-level data for a city of Fulton's size would not violate HIPAA.

Williams followed up with Lynch on Thursday, according to DHSS spokesperson Lisa Cox.

"Dr. Williams spoke with Sharon today, and I think they got some of the HIPAA questions sorted out," she wrote in an email Thursday evening. "They've determined Fulton has a large enough population and enough positive cases that the information can be released."

But as of Friday, Lynch said she still won't be providing Fulton-specific data.

"He advised me I could do that," Lynch said. "He did not offer me anything in writing or anything I could stand on. I'm not going to do it until I get that. My documentation, what I found and what I have, says I cannot do it."

Lynch described Williams' offer Wednesday to provide Fulton city officials with COVID-19 data as "great."

"It's not because I don't want to do it," Lynch said. "But just because somebody else does it doesn't mean it's okay for me to do it."

Data discrepancy

The numbers that were provided are at odds with data from the DHSS' Missouri COVID-19 dashboard. As of Friday, that dashboard showed 235 cumulative cases for Callaway County.

Cox was unable to fully explain the disparity.

"I did find through one of our epidemiologists that there have been many unique circumstances that could've attributed to that - university cases, correctional center or rehab facility cases -there tend to be more issues with temporary and permanent residence/county with these types of cases," she wrote in an email Thursday night.

Fulton is home to William Woods University and Westminster College; the former had several cases early in the pandemic. Fulton also hosts the Fulton Reception and Diagnostic Center, the Callaway County Jail, the Fulton State Hospital and Cremer Therapeutic Community Center. The Cremer Center and FRDC have both reported COVID-19 cases.

"There was also a situation where many cases came in from a provider without patient addresses at all, and so those at least initially, all got assigned to Callaway whether the person was from there or not," Cox said.

The gap between DHSS and CCHD data has persisted for weeks, though the size of the gap varies. For example, on Monday, the DHSS reported 202 Callaway cases while the CCHD only reported 175; by Tuesday, CCHD's numbers had almost caught up (at 199) while DHSS bumped up to 205.

Lynch maintains the discrepancy is caused by mistakenly attributing other places' cases to Callaway.

"There's a variety of reasons," she said. "We make every attempt to get a case to where it belongs. We've contacted other health departments, and I believe we've contacted other states."

She said her nurses have talked to DHSS about the discrepancy, to no avail.

During a prior phone interview, Cox said the DHSS investigates when a county or individual points out a discrepancy between state and county data and the agency is generally able to explain or correct the discrepancy quickly.

"It might even be within same 24-hour reporting period, through our dashboard," Cox added.

The DHSS dashboard may be viewed at https://health.mo.gov/.