CRH marks first death from COVID-19

Update: The Decatur County Health Department has confirmed that the patient who died at CRH was from Decatur County.

Columbus Regional Health has had its first death from COVID-19. The hospital is reporting few details because of patient confidentiality laws, but hospital spokeswoman Kelsey DeClue confirmed that a person who lives outside of the county has died of the coronavirus related illness Wednesday morning.

That is the first confirmed COVID-19 death in the county, said County Coroner Clayton Nolting. His office is waiting for test results of a second death in the county that happened earlier under circumstances indicating COVID-19. But those results have not yet confirmed the illness.

Nolting said his office will not be conducting inquests into deaths from the virus in the hospital setting and reporting on in-hospital deaths will come from the hospital. However, the coroner will continue performing tests on cases where a person dies outside of the hospital.

Reports of deaths from both the hospital and the coroner’s office will be included in a tally maintained by the Bartholomew County Health Department and reported to the state.

Bartholomew County has 13 reported cases of COVID-19 among county residents. Statewide, the Indiana State Department of Health is reporting 2,565 positive COVID-19 test results as of Tuesday’s daily update and 65 deaths from the disease across the state.

48 cases are confirmed in Decatur, 17 in Jennings, 19 in Shelby, 10 in Jackson, 3 in Brown and 118 in Johnson counties.

Marion County leads the state with 1,117 confirmed cases.