Coroner: State Included a Murder-Suicide in Grand’s COVID Deaths [Winter Park, Colorado]
Sky-Hi News | 12/16/2020 | Amy Golden

The Grand County coroner is disputing the number of COVID-19 deaths the state is reporting for the county.

Brenda Bock told county commissioners on Tuesday that the state is reporting two additional COVID-19 deaths in Grand, which she believes should not be included.

The coroner maintains that only one person in the county has died from COVID-19, while two more people have died with it, for a total of three COVID-related deaths in the county. However, the state is reporting five for Grand.

In disputing the numbers, Bock explained that a couple who died of gunshot wounds late last month have been included in the state’s numbers. The state told Bock those deaths are included in the count because the two tested positive for COVID-19 within 30 days before their death.

Bock called the state’s reporting “false and misleading.”

“The two cases were autopsied, and the cause of death was listed as ‘blunt force injuries due to a gunshot wound,’” Bock said of what police determined to be a murder-suicide. “Nowhere did the pathologist say COVID was the cause of death.”

Montezuma County Disputes Colorado State’s Coronavirus Death Count: Man With Staggering .55 Blood-Alcohol Content Dies; Officials Call It A COVID-19 Death
Durango Herald | 05/14/2020 | By Jim Mimiaga

The Montezuma County Coroner’s Office is disputing the state’s claim of a third fatal case of the coronavirus in Cortez, saying the person died of alcohol poisoning.

County Coroner George Deavers said the person tested positive for COVID-19, but an investigation by him and the pathologist determined the cause of death was ethanol toxicity. The person’s blood-alcohol content was 0.55, or almost seven times the legal driving limit of 0.08 in Colorado, Deavers said. A BAC of 0.3 is considered lethal.

“COVID was not listed on the death certificate as the cause of death. I disagree with the state for listing it as a COVID death, and will be discussing it with them this week,” he said Tuesday.