As of April 14, 2020, CDC case counts and death counts updated to include both confirmed and probable cases and deaths. This change was made to reflect an interim COVID-19 position statement issued by the Council for State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) on April 5, 2020. The position statement included a case definition and made COVID-19 a nationally notifiable disease. [1, 2]
Allegedly no safeguards were put in place by the CDC “to ensure that the same individual would not be counted multiple times.”
Changes to definitions can cause data spikes which can create unwarranted fear and alarm. “Probable” cases and deaths statistics can inflate the actual issue. Probably means “assumed” [UK, US, Aust] and COVID-19 is still placed on the death certificates as the cause of death.