After officials conceded that many deaths were not a “direct result” of the virus, a California county was forced to reduce its phony COVID-19 death toll by a stunning 25%.
The overall number of deaths caused by the coronavirus in Alameda County has been reduced from 1,634 to 1,223.
Despite this, California Governor Gavin Newsom has stated that he has no intention of lifting the state of emergency.
County officials chose to change the figures to comply with the California Department of Public Health’s classification guidelines. Deaths of anybody infected with COVID-19 were formerly included in the county, regardless of whether COVID-19 was a direct or contributing cause of death, reported Foxnews.com.
Neetu Balram, a spokesperson for Alameda County Public Health, said that some of the deaths “were clearly not caused by COVID,” the Los Angeles Times reported.
“Obviously our definition was broader than the state’s,” Balram said, adding that the department had always planned to conduct an update “when cases and deaths stabilized.”
The alternative causes of death were not provided.
“We knew any change like this would have raised some eyebrows,” Alameda County health officer Nicholas Moss told the Oaklandside. “Nothing about this changes our policy decisions now or during the height of the pandemic.”
Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert and senior scholar at Johns Hopkins, said the adjustments were expected but the amount “seems high.”
