Washoe health officials reported 354 additional COVID-19 cases and seven deaths Tuesday. That brings the countywide total to 328 deaths. Deaths are rising at alarming numbers.
There have been 50 COVID-19-related deaths in Washoe County in the past eight days alone.
Dr. John Hess, with Saint Mary's Medical Group, spoke at the recent Truckee Meadows COVID-19 task force meeting. He said COVID-19 is the leading cause of death in the community.
“Statistically, based on our population size, we would typically see 18 deaths a week from cardiovascular disease and 16 deaths a week from cancer, which are the two most common killers in our country. Based on those numbers, over the last couple of weeks, we are having more COVID deaths than cancer and heart disease deaths combined,” Hess said.
But non-COVID-19 deaths continue to be a burden as well. And the Washoe County Medical Examiner Dr. Laura Knight said her staff at the coroner’s office are stretched thin.
“We are exhausted and burnt out because, it’s not just the COVID-related fatalities, we are having a lot of excess mortality in our region also because people are not seeking medical care,” Knight said.
That’s the reason more people than ever are dying at home.
“That’s creating an additional workload burden for medical-legal death investigation for the coroner and medical examiner system. We are experiencing a peak record number of deaths reported and death scene investigations right now,” Knight said.
Prior to the Thanksgiving holiday, Knight said that funerals and mortuaries in the region were nearing capacity, and that did happen at some funeral homes. That’s why the coroner’s office has begun storing more bodies there.
Knight said her office is still preparing for the post-Thanksgiving surge. And if the county continues at the current rate, she said there could be as many as 170 COVID-19-related deaths by the end of December.
Lucia Starbuck is a corps member with Report for America, an initiative of the Ground Truth Project.
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