COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death in the United States in 2020, according to the CDC

COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death in the United States in in 2021 and contributed to a 15.9% increase in death rate from the previous year, according to an official report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCwhich cites data for the whole year.

The disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 was the underlying or contributing cause of 377,883 deaths in the United States last yearaccording to the CDC’s National Vital Statistics System, which collects and publishes interim annual mortality data. Only heart disease and cancer were more deadly.

Coronavirus in the world: more than 127 million infected and more than 2.7 million deaths

The study found that Hispanics, Indigenous and Afro-descendants had the highest COVID-19 death rates by ethnicity. Death rate among white Americans was less than half than among Afro-descendants and Hispanics, and the vast majority of coronavirus deaths were among people 65 and older, who accounted for nearly 81% of deaths from the disease.

In a second study, CDC rejected idea that many deaths from COVID-19 could have been misrecognized or exaggerated. The health agency looked at the death certificates of people whose deaths were first attributed to the infectious disease, but also mentioned another condition.

In the 97% of certificates that attributed death to COVID-19 with another condition, the last diagnosis tended to be what is called a A “chain of events condition” such as pneumonia or respiratory failure, or a “contributing condition” such as hypertension or diabetes. That means these other conditions were either caused by COVID-19 or made the disease even more deadly, the CDC said.

“A joke”: the United States and its allies doubt the WHO report on the origin of Covid-19

Only 2.5% of death certificates mention conditions that have not been associated with Covid-19, the study found. The CDC said the analysis supported “the accuracy of the surveillance of Covid-19 mortality in the United States using official death certificates.”

Even like that, CDC suggested that the underlying cause of some deaths may not have been properly classified as Covid-19, given the limited availability of tests for the coronavirus.