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The V.I. Dept. of Health on Thursday said that after investigating the unexpected death of a 41-year-old man from St. Thomas, who was ill with Covid-19 about a month before his death, it concluded that the death was not related to the coronavirus. "Health officials, after receiving an evaluation from the medical examiner and the department’s Epidemiology division, determined that the death was not related to Covid-19," D.O.H. said in its release.
D.O.H. Medical Director, Dr. Tai Hunte-Ceasar, told the Consortium Thursday the investigation was needed because sometimes rare, inflammatory reactions occur in Covid-19 patients, and department experts decided that it was prudent to investigate the matter. "It just needed to be further investigated," Dr. Hunte-Ceasar said. "And it could have been that perhaps maybe it was a reinfection, so that's why it needed to be investigated."
Health Commissioner Justa Encarnacion said the investigation also revealed other factors that may have led to the victim's death. "That's really why we were able to rule [Covid-19] out," said the commissioner. "But at the same time we did not want to not say that it could have been; we wanted to be open."
Persons whose illnesses are exacerbated by Covid-19, which then leads to death, are considered to be Covid-related fatalities, the health officials said.
The territory had 24 Covid-19-related deaths as of Friday morning.
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