Empire State Today

There were 450 deaths with heart disease listed as the underlying cause reported in New York state during the week ending August 7, a 1.1 percent increase over the previous week, according to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In the week ending August 7, there were 2,037 deaths in the state. 22.1 percent of deaths were caused by heart disease, 21.1 percent were from cancer and 3.8 percent were from COVID-19. Additionally, 8.6 percent of deaths were from Alzheimer's disease and dementia.

Studies show doctors and medical examiners may underreport Alzheimer's disease and dementia-related conditions as the underlying cause of death on death certificates, according to the National Institute on Aging.

Once infected, older adults with dementia are likely to develop a more severe and dangerous illness. The diseases which make an older adult more vulnerable to COVID-19 are age-associated chronic conditions, according to the Bright Focus Foundation.

Cause of Death	Number of Deaths 2021-08-07	Number of Deaths 2021-07-31
Heart disease	450	445
Malignant neoplasms (cancerous tumor)	430	381
Cerebrovascular diseases	92	75
Chronic lower respiratory diseases	85	77
Diabetes mellitus	48	48
Alzheimer's disease	44	51
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis	42	39
COVID-19 (multiple cause)	41	33
Influenza and pneumonia	40	42
COVID-19 (underlying cause)	36	26

Cause of Death	Number of Deaths 2021-08-07	Number of Deaths 2021-07-31
Alzheimer disease and dementia	176	178