Tennessee raises COVID-19 death toll by thousands

Officials in Tennessee have increased the state’s COVID-19 death toll by about 2,700 to 20,644 after a review, according to The Associated Press.

Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey said that the revision was due to lagging data, such as manual death reporting by many health care providers and increased home deaths that are confirmed by investigations, the AP noted. 

The state health department also announced that it is looking into ways to improve its reporting of at-home deaths and is investigating why more of them are occurring. 

Piercey said that 70 percent of the deaths in the state occurred during the delta variant surge that began in August.

The health commissioner added that the new death toll standards set by the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists are expected next month, the AP notes. 

The state of Tennessee has a 51 percent COVID-19 vaccination rate, which is the 8th lowest in the United States, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data analyzed by The New York Times.

By comparison, Vermont has a 77 percent vaccinated rate, the highest in the U.S.

Sixty-one percent of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated.