PSA: COVID-19 among top causes of death in Philippines in first 10 months of 2021

The coronavirus disease 2019 was among the top causes of death in the Philippines in the first 10 months of 2021, ranking third after heart and cerebrovascular diseases, government data released on Monday showed.

Data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that ischaemic heart diseases were the top causes of death in the country during the period with 110,332 cases or 18.3% of the total deaths.

This is 28.0% higher than the 86,164 deaths or 16.9% of the total deaths recorded in the comparable period in 2020.

The PSA ranked cerebrovascular diseases as the second top cause of death in the country during the period, with 58,880 deaths or 9.7% of the total. This is 10.9% higher than the 53,082 cases recorded in the same period the previous year.

The ranking comes even as total COVID-19 deaths accounted for 75,285 or 12.5% during the period, registering a higher number than recorded from cerebrovascular diseases.

The PSA separated COVID-19 cases under two classifications — COVID-19 with virus identified with 51,514 cases or 8.15% of the total ranking third, and COVID-19 with virus not identified with 23,771 or 3.9% of total ranking eighth.

On Sunday, the Philippines recorded 37,154 fresh cases of COVID-19, bringing the active caseload to 287,856. The total tally stands at 3.205 million, including 2.864 recoveries.

The National Capital Region marked the highest number of deaths due to COVID-19 with 18,044 or 24.0%, led by Quezon City with 3,955, followed by Manila City with 2,558, and Pasig City with 1,832.

The NCR was followed by Calabarzon with 16,630 or 22.1%, and Central Luzon with 14,252 or 18.9%.

Other top causes of death in the first 10 months of the year are neoplasms or cancer with 48,937 cases or 8.1%, and diabetes mellitus with 38,584 cases.

Also included in the top 10 causes of death are hypertensive disease with 32,614; pneumonia with 26,328; other heart diseases with 19,314; and chronic lower respiratory diseases with 17,711. — RSJ, GMA News