Empire State Today

There were 217 deaths with COVID-19 listed as a contributing cause reported in New York state during the week ending September 18, a 29.9 percent increase over the previous week, according to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In the week ending September 18, there were 2,212 deaths in the state. 19.8 percent of deaths were caused by heart disease, 19.2 percent were from cancer and 18.5 percent were from COVID-19. Additionally, 8 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 2021-09-18	Number of Deaths 2021-09-11
Heart disease	437	483
Malignant neoplasms (cancerous tumor)	424	398
COVID-19 (multiple cause)	217	167
COVID-19 (underlying cause)	192	153
Chronic lower respiratory diseases	84	73
Cerebrovascular diseases	73	81
Diabetes mellitus	66	44
Influenza and pneumonia	50	46
Alzheimer's disease	48	36
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis	34	32

Cause of Death	Number of Deaths 2021-09-18	Number of Deaths 2021-09-11
Alzheimer disease and dementia	176	162