Virus In North Alabama

Local Coroners say recorded deaths are accurate

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We have received several questions from you asking why we don't report the number of patients who have recovered from coronavirus.

That's because the alabama department of public health does not provide that information at this time.

We are now learning there were coronavirus cases in the united states earlier than we first thought.

New autopsy results show a california woman died from the virus in early february --about 3 weeks before the first death was reported.

Waay 31's rodneya ross is live in huntsville this morning with what local coroners have to say about the coronavirus timeline in our area.

Right now -- coroners we spoke to say they are confident the number of coronavirus related deaths in their counties is accurate.

The coroner here in madison county told us based on the data and numbers, nothing suggests there were coronavirus related deaths in the county before the first one was reported back in march.

The coroner in lauderdale county also said he's confident we didn't have earlier deaths-- and if we did we likely would've seen people associated with the deceased diagnosed with the virus.

Both coroners told us at this point, it would be difficult to go back and retest.

Dr. tyler berryhill, madison co coroner: "regaining access to the body and going through the the procedures, it's pretty much not possible, an x number of cases have been cremated and even if you could - the virus the ability to collect it and have it tested this far out is not possible."

The coroner in dekalb county said they can only test someone who's died if an autopsy was performed.

That's because samples are taken in those cases -- but those samples are held at forensic labs so it would be up to the state to decide if they want to retest.

However -- in morgan county -- the coroner said they are re-testing samples from a few people who died within the last couple of weeks who had symptoms -- but weren't tested when they were alive.

Reporting live in madison co, rr, waay 31