Empire State Today

There were 470 deaths with heart disease listed as the underlying cause reported in New York state during the week ending November 20, a 6.7 percent decrease from the previous week, according to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In the week ending November 20, there were 2,294 deaths in the state. 20.5 percent of deaths were caused by heart disease, 17.9 percent were from cancer and 18 percent were from COVID-19. Additionally, 9.9 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 2021-11-20	Number of Deaths 2021-11-13
Heart disease	470	504
Malignant neoplasms (cancerous tumor)	411	417
COVID-19 (multiple cause)	218	217
COVID-19 (underlying cause)	194	196
Chronic lower respiratory diseases	107	84
Cerebrovascular diseases	95	89
Alzheimer's disease	63	49
Influenza and pneumonia	61	48
Diabetes mellitus	49	62
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis	32	29

Cause of Death	Number of Deaths 2021-11-20	Number of Deaths 2021-11-13
Alzheimer disease and dementia	228	226