94% of US Covid-19 deaths due to underlying conditions: CDC

Washington, Sep 1 (IANS) Ninety-four per cent of patients who died of the novel coronavirus in the US had underlying conditions, while only 6 per cent succumbed to the disease directly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a new report.

“For 6 per cent of the deaths, Covid-19 was the only cause mentioned,” Xinhua news agency reported citing the CDC report as saying on Monday.

“For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to Covid-19, on average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or cases per death.”

The diseases that CDC listed as the top underlying medical conditions linked to coronavirus deaths, included influenza and pneumonia; respiratory failure; hypertensive disease; diabetes; vascular and unspecified dementia; cardiac arrest; heart failure; renal failure; intentional and unintentional injury.

As of Tuesday, the overall Covid-19 death toll in the US stood at 183,579, while the number of total cases increased to 6,028,617, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

Both tallies account for the highest in the world.

–IANS

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