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Effective July 1, 2023, LAC DPH is aligning with CDPH and CDC in using death certificates as the primary means of tracking COVID-19 deaths. Therefore, it is important that when COVID-19 contributed to a death that it be reported on the death certificate. This will allow public health agencies at the local, state, and federal levels to accurately assess COVID-19 trends and appropriately direct public health response.
The CDC guidance on certifying deaths due to COVID-19 instructs medical certifiers to include COVID-19 if it was an underlying cause of death or if it was a significant condition that contributed to the death. When a definitive diagnosis cannot be made but it is suspected that COVID-19 played a role in the death, it is acceptable to report COVID-19 on a death certificate as “probable” or “presumed”. In addition, the CDC instructs certifiers to include “post-acute sequelae of COVID-19” on the death certificate if the death may have been due to long-term complications of COVID-19, even if the original infection occurred months or years before death.
