COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death in the United States in 2020, behind cardiovascular disease and cancer, according to provisional figures released by US health officials.
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The coronavirus caused the overall death rate to rise nearly 16% from 2019, they also said. This rate had not increased since 2017.
In total, more than 3.3 million people died between January and December 2020 in the United States, detail the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), which analyzed death certificates in the country.
Relative to population and adjusted for age, the number of people who died per 100,000 population was around 828, up from 715 in 2019, an increase of 15.9%.
Of those deaths, more than 377,800 were definitively or likely due to COVID-19 (around 345,300 excluding deaths for which coronavirus was one of the diseases contributing to death, among other factors). That is 11% of the total number of deaths in the country.
By comparison, heart disease killed about 690,000 people in the same year in the United States, and cancer 598,000.
The death rate from COVID-19 was significantly higher among black people (151 deaths per 100,000 population), Hispanics (164) and Native Americans (187), compared to white people (72).
“Unfortunately, considering the current state of the pandemic, these consequences continue into 2021, where we continue to see people of color make up a very large portion of these deaths,” said Rochelle Walensky, CDC director, at the meeting. ‘a press point.
“This data should serve as a motor for us to continue to play our role in lowering the number of cases, reducing the spread of COVID-19, and vaccinating people as quickly as possible,” she added, then that the United States is once again seeing daily contaminations increase.
Unsurprisingly, the analysis of the health authorities also showed a mortality rate increasing very significantly with age, with only 0.2 deaths per 100,000 children between 1 and 14 years old, against 1,797 deaths for the same. proportion of people aged over 85.
Men were also more affected than women.
Finally, the weeks during which the greatest number of deaths from COVID-19 were recorded took place in April and December, that is to say at the times of the peaks of spring and winter, detail the health authorities.
The final figures will not be released right away: they are usually released around 11 months after the end of the year in question.