The state Department of Health has reported that two COVID-19 deaths occurred this week in Lycoming County, but that was news to County Coroner Charles E. Kiessling Jr.

“As far as I’m concerned we have had no COVID-19 deaths in the county,” Kiessling said late Tuesday afternoon.

“I don’t know where they (the health department) is getting their information. You will have to ask them. They have not reported anything to me,” he said.

Kiessling, who is head of the Pennsylvania State Coroners Association, said he and many coroners throughout the commonwealth put little faith in the actual numbers the health department gives out daily on the number of COVID 19 death cases.

“This has been a major frustration of mine from the start of this pandemic,” Kiessling said, adding that in many cases, the coroners are not involved in the reporting process at all.

It is a problem he hears almost daily from other coroners.

Read more in Wednesday’s Sun-Gazette