April may have been the deadliest month for COVID. But local officials said that data's 'tricky' to track in real-time.

April may have been the deadliest month in St. Clair County since the COVID-19 pandemic began — at least in reported data.

Between April 1 and Friday, the total of local coronavirus deaths reported by the county health department shot up from 270 to 365.

That number, transmission rates and hospitalizations at large have set new record highs in the area amid the third and latest COVID surge — even as things have begun to trend down this month. At 95, April’s total of reported deaths surpasses each of the previous four months, including December when deaths rose to 70 in one month following the last surge.

Dr. Annette Mercatante, the county’s medical health officer, said tracking data about deaths in real-time can be “really, really tricky.”

“There’s all kinds of like, ‘Well, did he die of COVID? Or did he just happen to have COVID in his system when he did die?’ All that stuff has to be worked out,” Mercatante said.

“I am concerned that what we're going to see as an increase in all-cause mortality in hindsight. Meaning people are dying not just of COVID. … If you remember our community health assessment, we already have high mortality rates for the most common causes of death in St. Clair County, which we've never really put into perspective and figured out.”

Results for St. Clair County’s most recent community health assessment came out four years ago.

At the time, it reported area adults had higher mortality rates for cancer, heart disease chronic lower respiratory disease and diabetes than across the state or U.S.

Long-term impact of COVID is ‘not just about people dying’

Over the last couple of months, health officials have said more of the reported cases and hospitalizations were among younger demographics at a much higher rate than before.

They attributed it to vaccinations of the over-65 age group as well as the high rate of transmission. 

Mercatante said it’s concerning because that means younger demographics have also been dying of COVID.

“Which means you have more years of productive lives lost, which is a statistical analysis to do,” she said. “So, not say every life isn't critical, but you lose a lot more in a community when a 60-year-old dies, as opposed to when a 90-year-old dies.”

And then, there is also long-term impacts of the illness for survivors, which Mercatante said she didn’t think was being discussed enough more recently.

“(It is) a very prolonged illness that people are having for months afterward,” she said. “So, that needs to be taken into consideration too. It's not just about people dying, it's also about people being just severely impacted from all levels.”

Contact Jackie Smith at jssmith@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Jackie20Smith.