COVID-19 deaths trailed those caused by heart disease,
cancer and injuries such as drug overdoses, motor vehicle fatalities and
shootings. In 2020 and 2021, only heart disease and cancer were ahead of the
coronavirus.
U.S. deaths usually rise year-to-year, in part because the
nation’s population has been growing. The pandemic accelerated that trend,
making 2021 the deadliest in U.S. history, with more than 3.4 million deaths.
But 2022 saw the first drop in deaths since 2009.
The 2022 tally was about 3.3 million — a 5% decline from
2021 but still much higher than in the years before the pandemic. The CDC
cautioned that last year’s numbers are preliminary and may change a little
after further analysis.
Coronavirus-associated death rates fell for nearly all
Americans. The virus was deemed the underlying cause of about 187,000 U.S.
deaths last year, accounting for about 6% of deaths. The highest COVID-19 death
rates were in the South and in an adjacent region that stretches west to Texas,
Oklahoma and New Mexico, the CDC said.
The death rates for heart disease and cancer increased
during the pandemic, the CDC said. The cancer death rate had been falling for
20 years before COVID-19 hit.
The CDC report indicated a slight decline in the number of
injury deaths last year, falling to about 218,000 from about 219,500 the year
before. That would be a surprise, given recent trends in rising drug overdose
and gun deaths.
CDC officials noted that number could rise. Death
certificate data for injury deaths tends to take longer because many involve
police investigations.-AP
0 comments:
Post a Comment