Empire State Today

There were 187 deaths with COVID-19 listed as the underlying cause reported in New York state during the week ending October 9, a 2.1 percent decrease from the previous week, according to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In the week ending October 9, there were 2,302 deaths in the state. 21.2 percent of deaths were caused by heart disease, 20.5 percent were from cancer and 16.9 percent were from COVID-19. Additionally, 7.6 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 2021-10-09	Number of Deaths 2021-10-02
Heart disease	488	503
Malignant neoplasms (cancerous tumor)	473	421
COVID-19 (multiple cause)	202	221
COVID-19 (underlying cause)	187	191
Cerebrovascular diseases	107	87
Chronic lower respiratory diseases	96	92
Diabetes mellitus	59	58
Influenza and pneumonia	44	31
Alzheimer's disease	44	38
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis	31	29

Cause of Death	Number of Deaths 2021-10-09	Number of Deaths 2021-10-02
Alzheimer disease and dementia	174	185