COVID-19:Third leading cause of death in PH, Jan-Nov 2021 – PSA

FILE PHOTO: Colorized scanning electron micrograph of an apoptotic cell (red) infected with SARS-COV-2 virus particles (yellow), also known as novel coronavirus, isolated from a patient sample. Image captured at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in Fort Detrick, Maryland. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH/Handout via REUTERS.

MANILA, Philippines — COVID-19 is the third leading cause of death in the Philippines from January to November 2021, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), trailing ischemic heart diseases and cerebrovascular diseases.

Based on the latest PSA data released Tuesday, 67,494 or 9.6 percent of all the recorded deaths during the mentioned period died of the severe respiratory illness caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

“Deaths due to COVID-19 virus identified were now the third leading cause which accounted for 67,494 deaths (9.6% share), rising from rank 14 with 8,390 deaths (1.5% share) in the same period of 2020,” the PSA explained in its report.

Calabarzon registered the highest number of deaths due to COVID-19 from among the country’s 17 regions with 20,409 or 21 percent of the total COVID-19 deaths from January to November 2021, followed by Metro Manila with 20,154 and Central Luzon with 17,865.

“On the other hand, ARMM reported the least number of registered COVID-19 deaths with only 149 cases,” the PSA noted.

In Metro Manila, the PSA said Quezon City posted the highest number of COVID-19 deaths during the 11-month period with 3,955.

Meanwhile, the PSA places ischemic heart diseases as the top cause of mortality in the country from January to November 2021. Its data shows that of all the fatalities recorded in that period, 125,913 or 17.9 percent were due to ischemic heart diseases. The PSA said this figure is an increase of 31.9 percent from the recorded 95,439 deaths due to ischemic heart diseases from January to November 2020.

Cerebrovascular diseases, on the other hand, are the second leading cause of death in the country from January to November 2021 as they accounted for 68,180 fatalities during that time. The PSA said the latest sum increased by 16.6 percent from the 58,476 cases logged the year before.

The PSA data further indicated that neoplasms or “cancer” is the fourth while diabetes mellitus is the fifth leading causes of mortality in the country from January to November 2021, registering 54,853 and 44,491 deaths, respectively.

Also included in the top 10 causes of death in the Philippines from January to November 2021 are:

• Hypertensive diseases
• Pneumonia
• COVID-19 virus not identified
• Other heart diseases
• Chronic lower respiratory diseases

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