The death rate in the United States jumped by 15.9 percent between 2019 and 2020, fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday.
The coronavirus was responsible for about one in ten deaths in the country in 2020, and was the third-leading cause of death, behind heart disease and cancer.
Overall, COVID-19 was the underlying cause of about 345,000 deaths last year, and was a contributing cause for another roughly 32,000, which together is 11.3 percent of all deaths in the country last year, the CDC said. Continue reading.