Portland, Ore. — In a move that has many in the media, including FM News 101 KXL, questioning the motive, the Oregon Health Authority announced Wednesday it would no longer report individual COVID-19 death information.

The announcement came in Wednesday’s daily COVID-19 press release:

Starting today, OHA will no longer list individual cases of COVID-19 related deaths in Oregon in its daily media releases.

Since the first COVID-19 related death was reported in Oregon by OHA on March 14, 2020, OHA has listed each of the individuals by county of residence, date of death, date of positive test or symptom onset and if the individuals had underlying conditions. Those updates have been provided daily since March 14, 2020.

“Every death from COVID-19 represents a loss, especially for those who knew them best — families, friends and loved ones,” said OHA Director Patrick Allen. “That is why we have listed each case. Moving forward, we will share aggregated COVID-19 related deaths on OHA’s public dashboards, which are updated daily. As the death toll from the virus has climbed, validating and reporting each death has had an impact on our daily reporting. We will continue to honor the lives of each person lost to the pandemic, but in a different way. The dashboard will provide additional information on COVID-19 related deaths that have not been accessible in a visual format before — including data on trends, underlying conditions and residence setting. This dashboard offers the public a clearer picture of the collective toll the virus has taken. But it will never detract from the importance of each Oregonian who is no longer with us.”

KXL immediately responded with a request for more information and asked for an explanation for “the lack of transparency the OHA announced today by not continuing to report individual deaths?”

An OHA spokesperson responded with, “The statement in the daily media release has explains the change. You are welcome to use Pat’s quote”

KXL does not believe this response is adequate and again requests the Oregon Health Authority explain the change and its choice to lower the amount of transparency for the public.