Sunshine Sentinel

There were 133 deaths with COVID-19 listed as the underlying cause reported in Florida during the week ending December 4, a 17.7 percent increase over the previous week, according to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In the week ending December 4, there were 4,574 deaths in the state. 20.1 percent of deaths were caused by heart disease, 20.1 percent were from cancer and 6.4 percent were from COVID-19. Additionally, 8.4 percent of deaths were from Alzheimer's disease and dementia.

Studies show doctors and medical examiners may underreport Alzheimer's disease and dementia-related conditions as the underlying cause of death on death certificates, according to the National Institute on Aging.

Once infected, older adults with dementia are likely to develop a more severe and dangerous illness. The diseases which make an older adult more vulnerable to COVID-19 are age-associated chronic conditions, according to the Bright Focus Foundation.

Cause of Death	Number of Deaths 2021-12-04	Number of Deaths 2021-11-27
Heart disease	920	913
Malignant neoplasms (cancerous tumor)	919	829
Cerebrovascular diseases	337	285
Chronic lower respiratory diseases	205	190
COVID-19 (multiple cause)	158	149
Diabetes mellitus	147	131
COVID-19 (underlying cause)	133	113
Alzheimer's disease	129	130
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis	65	68
Influenza and pneumonia	54	48

Cause of Death	Number of Deaths 2021-12-04	Number of Deaths 2021-11-27
Alzheimer disease and dementia	382	358