Cumulative Total of Recovered COVID-19 Cases (as of 01/20/2022): 1,421,905
During this response, MDHHS has been reviewing vital records statistics to identify any laboratory confirmed COVID-19 cases who are 30 days out from their onset of illness to represent recovery status. Recovered had been defined as the number of persons with a confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis who are alive 30 days post-onset (or referral date if onset is not available). The number of persons recovered on January 20, 2022 represents COVID-19 confirmed individuals with an onset date on or prior to December 21, 2021. If an individual expires from a COVID-related cause >30 days from onset/referral, they are removed from the number of persons recovered.
Note: The recovery data from 01/20/2022 will be the final update posted to this website. The surveillance definition described above simplified the number of recovered cases to essentially include those who did not die of COVID-19 within the 30 day timeframe. Included in the recovered data would be persons who died without COVID-19 noted on their death certificate (potentially not recovered) and persons who do not expire but experience long COVID - which cannot be identified from current case surveillance methods. Early in the pandemic there was justification for publishing estimated mortality and recovery data as the true impact on of the virus on health was still emerging. Almost two years into the pandemic, the case fatality rates and proportion of persons who do not expire and recover are relatively well understood and this data is no longer a useful metric to estimate the true number of recovered persons.
