According to new information from the Elkhart County Health Department, the county has seen more deaths in 2020 than in any of the previous five years.
As of Dec. 14, 1,992 people had died in Elkhart County, a 9 percent increase when compared to 2019. Fourteen percent of those deaths were related to COVID-19.
From 2015 to 2019, about 1,830 people died each year in Elkhart County, on average. Adding in 2020's deaths bumps that average up to about 1,857 - a 1.5 percent increase.
(You can read the statement from the health department below.)
As 2020 comes to a close, we have been asked numerous times how many deaths, in total, have we seen in 2020 and how does that compare to previous years. We had the data pulled from the Vital Records system. The top graph shows the total number of deaths by year since 2015. The 2020 number goes through December 14th. As of December 16th, Elkhart County has seen 282 COVID-19 related deaths.
Contact Gemma atgdicarlo@wvpe.orgor follow her on Twitter at@gemma_dicarlo
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