U.S. Department of Health Stops Requiring Hospitals to Report Coronavirus Deaths to Federal Government

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) officially stopped requiring hospitals to report coronavirus deaths last Wednesday as the death toll approached 900,000.

Initially established in January, the rule change did not go into effect until last Wednesday – the same day the U.K. government announced it would stop requiring hospitals to report coronavirus death tolls by Easter, according to WSWS.

🚨BREAKING🚨

US Government to end daily COVID death reporting

A document issued issued Jan 6 by the US Health and Human Services tells hospitals they are no longer required to report daily COVID-19 deaths to the federal government starting Feb 2.

Story broken by @DataDrivenMD pic.twitter.com/jpxQi2yItZ

— Andre Damon (@Andre__Damon) January 14, 2022

One federal health official called the change “incomprehensible,” arguing that reporting coronavirus death tolls to the federal government is the most reliable metric.

“It is the only consistent, reliable and actionable dataset at the federal level,” the official said. “Ninety-nine percent of hospitals report one hundred percent of the data every day.”

Going forward, the federal government will obtain coronavirus death tolls from the Centers for Disease Control, which collects the data on a state-by-state level from coroner and medical examiner reports.- READ MORE