COLUMBUS, Ohio — The former state epidemiologist has been stripped of her title and reassigned, officials said Friday.
The health department announced a leadership restructuring and the resignation of a state investigator following a death reporting mistake which resulted in 4,000 coronavirus fatalities going uncounted until this week.
The former Bureau of Infectious Diseases Chief Sietske de Fijter was reassigned to a position in the department’s Bureau of Health Improvement and Wellness, said Arundi Venkayya, a spokesperson for the health department. She no longer holds her title as State Epidemiologist, Venkayya confirmed to Spectrum News Friday.
De Fijter’s replacement is Kristen Dickerson, who was the manager of health, wellness, and special programs at the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, a statement said. Dickerson has a PhD in public health with a concentration in epidemiology, a master’s degree in public health and an undergraduate degree in microbiology. In addition, she is a registered nurse in Ohio and an Army veteran.
Karthik Kondapally, the epidemiology investigator at the center of the department’s ongoing internal investigation, resigned Friday morning after he was placed on administrative leave on Thursday, according to the health department.
On Thursday, officials announced leadership at the Ohio Department of Health's Bureau of Infectious Diseases has been "restructured" after the department announced Wednesday it discovered approximately 4,000 COVID-19 deaths had gone unreported, Health Director Stephanie McCloud said Thursday.
In October, the state encountered "process issues” that impacted the reporting of deaths, resulting in thousands of “missed” mortalities in November and December when Ohio was experiencing a surge.
In his resignation letter to Jamie Erickson, the chief of HR for the department, Kondapally wrote that his formal resignation as an epidemiology investigator was effective Feb. 12. “I am grateful for the time I have worked with the Ohio Department of Health and I will always be humbled and honored to be a part of ODH,” he said.
De Fijter and Kondapally could not be reached for comment Friday. Officials have not disclosed the reasons for the former chief’s reassignment.
As the health department continues to remedy its dashboards, Ohio reported 2,559 deaths Friday after 721 were added the day before. Officials said the dashboards will soon reflect the full adjustment, and they assured residents the process for reporting deaths will be more reliable in the future.
“It's a real tragedy. I'm impacted by any deaths, and I'm certainly impacted by these deaths,” Gov. Mike DeWine said during a news conference Thursday.
The Ohio Department of Health has "added additional resources" to address the matter quickly.
Ohio gets death reports from two inputs: The state's death certificate database and a federal database, which must be reconciled. The 4,000 deaths went unreported because that process was not done in a timely manner, the health department said Thursday.