ATLANTA, Ga. (WJW) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new data last week that depicts how many Americans who have died from COVID-19 also had underlying medical conditions.
According to the report, only 6 percent of deaths have COVID-19 as the only cause mentioned, revealing that 94 percent of patients who died from coronavirus also had underlying health conditions.
The CDC listed the following as the top underlying medical conditions linked to coronavirus deaths:
- Influenza and pneumonia
- Respiratory failure
- Hypertensive disease
- Diabetes
- Vascular and unspecified dementia
- Cardiac arrest
- Heart failure
- Renal failure
- Intentional and unintentional injury, poisoning and other adverse events
- Other medical conditions
The CDC explains that their data uses provisional death counts to “deliver the most complete and accurate picture of lives lost to COVID-19.”
These numbers are based on death certificates, which the organization says are the most reliable source of data. Death certificates reportedly contain information that is not available anywhere else and includes co-morbid conditions, race and ethnicity and place of death.
The CDC said provisional death counts may not match counts from other sources, such as numbers from county health departments, because death certificates take time to be completed, states report at different rates, it takes officials extra time to code COVID-19 deaths, and because other reporting systems use different definitions or methods for counting deaths.
The organization adds that provisional data is not yet complete, provisional counts are not final and are subject to change, and that death counts should not be compared across states.
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