Empire State Today

There were 363 deaths with COVID-19 listed as the underlying cause reported in New York state during the week ending Feb. 5, a 31.4 percent decrease from the previous week, according to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In the week ending Feb. 5, there were 2,092 deaths in the state. 20.7 percent of deaths were caused by heart disease, 16.3 percent were from cancer and 37.9 percent were from COVID-19.

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 2022-02-05	Number of Deaths 2022-01-29
Heart disease	433	552
COVID-19 (multiple cause)	430	625
COVID-19 (underlying cause)	363	529
Malignant neoplasms (cancerous tumor)	342	364
Chronic lower respiratory diseases	78	93
Cerebrovascular diseases	76	92
Alzheimer's disease	48	49
Diabetes mellitus	47	67
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis	38	43
Influenza and pneumonia	33	50