11th Fayette Co. Death From COVID Confirmed

The Fayette County Office of Emergency Management announced another fatal coronavirus case, bringing the virus’ death count to 11 in Fayette County.

Emergency Management Chief Craig Moreau said the deceased was a man over 80 years old from Precinct 4 who died in early July.

“It was borderline on whether it was a COVID death or not,” Moreau said. “But we got the death certificate and it listed COVID as a cause of death. He was an elderly gentleman with multiple co-morbidities.”

Moreau announced the death on Friday, Oct. 9. It narrows the gap between the number of local deaths reported by Fayette County officials, 11, and the number reported for Fayette County by the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS), 21.

Moreau said numbers provided by Fayette County only include COVID deaths that have been confirmed by the deceased’s medical provider or when their death certificate lists COVID-19 or coronavirus as a cause of death. Moreau said the fatality numbers provided by DSHS include deaths in which COVID-19 was suspected as a cause of death. In addition, he said the State may not have accurate residency information.

Moreau said the death announced last Friday was among the 21 fatalities reported by DSHS.

“We continue to stand our assertion we’re not adding deaths to our local dashboard unless they died from COVID or it was a major contributing factor, not that they died with COVID,” Moreau said.

A difference of 10 deaths remain between the numbers provided by the County and the State. Moreau said he is investigating the cause of death in four of those cases. He said he has no information on the other six.

“We have absolutely no indication of who they are or where they were from,” Moreau said. “The prevailing thought is it may be people who lived in nursing homes in other parts of Texas, and they may have come from here, but we don’t know that for sure.”

Latest COVID Numbers

According to county officials there are 15 active cases and 16 probable cases of COVID here as of Monday morning.