As of Monday, the United States had the highest number of confirmed Coronavirus cases of any country in the world. However, recent data reports from the CDC reveals that of the 182,149 COVID-19 related deaths, only 9,683 were a direct result of the virus.
Approximately 94% of COVID-19 deaths occurred in patients who had "health conditions and contributing causes," according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Data for this statement was collected by the CDC from patient death certificates, which are the most reliable form of data as they provide data such as "comorbid conditions, race and ethnicity, and place of death."
Comorbid conditions are multiple conditions that can lead to death in a patient. Based on data from the CDC, some of the most common comorbid conditions related to COVID-19 deaths were influenza and pneumonia at 68,004 patients and hypertensive diseases at 35,272.
Although the average weekly rate of confirmed cases in the US has dropped from 57,000 to 41,000, there are still increases in cases reported in the Midwest.
