COVID-19 is third leading cause of death in 2021, says PSA

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

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on Tuesday said that COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death in the Philippines in 2021.

The severe respiratory illness caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the PSA added, followed ischemic heart diseases and cerebrovascular diseases, which are ranked first and second, respectively, in the list.

PSA said 74,008 or 9.7 percent of all the recorded deaths from January to December 2021 were due to COVID-19.

“Deaths due to COVID-19 virus identified were the third leading cause which accounted for 74,008 deaths (9.7% share), rising from rank 14 with 9,316 deaths (1.5% share) in the same period of 2020,” it noted in its report.

Among the country’s 17 regions, Calabarzon registered the highest number of COVID-19 deaths with 21,165 (20 percent) trailed by the National Capital Region (NCR) or Metro Manila with 20,924 (19.8 percent) and Central Luzon with 18,828 (17.8 percent).

ARMM, on the other hand, recorded the least number of COVID-19 deaths with 162.

“In NCR, Quezon City reported the highest number of deaths due to COVID-19, with 4,660 deaths or 22.3 percent of the total COVID-19 deaths in the region from January to December 2021,” PSA said.

“This was followed by the City of Manila and City of Pasig with 2,976 (14.2%) and 2,075 (9.9%) COVID-19 deaths, respectively,” it added.

The PSA data showed that ischemic heart diseases were the leading cause of death in the country last year with 136,575 (17.8 percent), higher by 29.7 percent from the 105,821  (17.1 percent) deaths it caused in the same period in 2020. Ischemic heart diseases are more commonly known as coronary heart disease (CHD).

Cerebrovascular diseases came in second place as they caused the passing of 74,262 people (9.7 percent) in 2021. This was 15.3 percent higher than the 64,381 deaths it caused in the same period the year before when it was ranked third.

The fourth leading cause of death last year was neoplasms or “cancer”  with 54,853 while diabetes mellitus was ranked fifth with 44,491 deaths.

Other diseases in the Top 10 causes of death in 2021 were hypertensive diseases, pneumonia, COVID-19 virus not identified, other heart diseases, and chronic lower respiratory diseases, according to the PSA.

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