Empire State Today

There were 236 deaths with COVID-19 listed as the underlying cause reported in New York state during the week ending November 27, a 21 percent increase over the previous week, according to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In the week ending November 27, there were 2,428 deaths in the state. 21.7 percent of deaths were caused by heart disease, 17.2 percent were from cancer and 20.8 percent were from COVID-19. Additionally, 9.3 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 2021-11-27	Number of Deaths 2021-11-20
Heart disease	528	471
Malignant neoplasms (cancerous tumor)	417	411
COVID-19 (multiple cause)	269	219
COVID-19 (underlying cause)	236	195
Cerebrovascular diseases	96	95
Chronic lower respiratory diseases	84	107
Alzheimer's disease	63	63
Diabetes mellitus	57	50
Influenza and pneumonia	46	61
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis	29	32

Cause of Death	Number of Deaths 2021-11-27	Number of Deaths 2021-11-20
Alzheimer disease and dementia	227	228