Winters, who was admitted to Upper Valley Medical Center in Troy on March 16, died four days later, March 20, according to Dr. William Ginn, Miami County coroner. Winters died one day before his 84th birthday.
Director of Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Amy ActonDirector of Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Amy Acton called the outbreak at Koester Pavilion a “hot spot” Saturday during Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s press conference.
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Sixteen residents of Koester, 24 staff members and two visitors have shown symptoms of COVID-19, according to the Miami County health district. Twelve of those cases are presumed positive, and five people are currently hospitalized.
Winters died one day after the death of 93-year-old Earl Bolinger, who was also a resident at the skilled nursing care facility and who also was awaiting coronavirus testing results.
Winters’ body was released to the funeral home and was not autopsied, Ginn said.
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People transporting the body were aware he was a potential COVID-19 case and were told to take virus precautions, Ginn said.
Regardless of whether Winters tests positive for COVID-19, his body will not be autopsied, because there is not much valuable medical information to learn from such an examination, Ginn said.
People infected with COVID-19 appear to be capable of transmitting the virus even after death, so the virus exposure risks to medical examiner staff would not be worth it, Ginn said.
“I can’t tell you how long after death that period of time is, but I know that bodies can be swabbed for the virus after death and you can still get a positive result,” he said.
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The health district now has a pandemic box on its death certificate that lists COVID-19, officials said.
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