The Covid-19 pandemic has become the third top killer of Filipinos in 2021, according to Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
Data showed deaths due to COVID-19 virus identified reached 74,008 deaths or 9.7 percent of all deaths between January and December 2021. This represented a 694.4 percent increase from 9,316 deaths in the same period of 2020.
Registered deaths due to COVID-19 accounted for a total of 105,723 deaths or 13.8 percent of the total registered deaths from January to December 2021.
“By classification, COVID-19 with virus identified and COVID-19 virus not identified were both included in the 10 leading causes of death,” PSA said.
The data showed registered deaths due to Covid-19 with virus not identified accounted for 31,715 or 4.1 percent of the total deaths from January to December 2021, making it the 8th leading cause of death.
This represented a 51.9 percent increase from the 20,872 deaths due to Covid-19 with virus not identified in 2020.
Among the 17 regions, CALABARZON registered the highest number of deaths due to COVID-19 with 21,165 or 20 percent of the total COVID-19 deaths from January to December 2021.
The National Capital Region (NCR) ranked second with 20,924 deaths or 19.8 percent of Covid-19 deaths, while Central Luzon came in third with 18,828 deaths or 17.8 percent.
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.
This was followed by the City of Manila and City of Pasig with 2,976 or 14.2 percent and 2,075 or 9.9 percent of COVID-19 deaths, respectively.
Meanwhile, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) reported the least number of registered COVID-19 deaths with only 162 cases.
In the January to December 2021 period, the other main causes of death were ischaemic heart diseases and cerebrovascular diseases.
In the same period of 2020, the leading causes of death were ischaemic heart diseases, neoplasms, and cerebrovascular diseases.
From January to December of 2021, ischaemic heart diseases were the leading cause of death with 136,575 cases or 17.8 percent of the total deaths in the country.
This indicated an increase of 29.7 percent from the 105,281 deaths or 17.1 percent of the total deaths in the same period of 2020.
Meanwhile, cerebrovascular diseases, came in second with 74,262 deaths or 9.7 percent share from being third in the previous year’s ranking.###