The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that COVID-19 was the tenth leading cause of death in the United States in 2023, down significantly from fourth place a year earlier. Heart disease, cancer and unintentional injuries — a category of deaths that has risen in recent years primarily due to drug overdoses — were the leading causes of death.

In addition, stroke, which ranked fifth before the pandemic, is now fourth. Although the increase in stroke death rates began before COVID-19, the percentage increase in those rates peaked a year later.

“In 2020, COVID-19 substantially changed the rankings of leading causes of death. COVID-19 mortality rates have since decreased,” researchers at the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics wrote in an article published by the medical journal JAMA.

The report was based on death certificates from 2019 to 2023. Covid-19 was cited as the underlying or contributing cause of 76,446 deaths in 2023, a 68.9 percent decrease from the previous year. Experts say many elderly people with serious chronic illnesses – from kidney disease to liver disease and Alzheimer’s – died during the Covid-19 pandemic. Diabetes and heart disease also increase the risk of dying from the coronavirus.

Every 33 seconds someone dies from heart related problems

According to experts, every 33 seconds, someone dies from heart disease — the leading cause of death for men, women and most racial and ethnic groups across the U.S. Doctors say there’s more work to be done to close the gap even further, including by providing access to healthcare and insurance for traditionally underserved populations.

COVID-19 cited as a major cause of other deaths

The report says COVID-19 is blamed as the “underlying” primary cause for 49,928 deaths in 2023 — less than a third of the 186,552 deaths primarily attributed to the virus in 2022. When including deaths where it was listed as a contributing factor to other causes of death, the CDC says at least 76,446 deaths last year were linked to it.

However, the rate of related deaths for Black Americans remains the worst compared to other racial and ethnic groups. The CDC says that COVID-19 deaths may decline further this year after reaching lower levels last winter than in the previous winter wave. However, some summer trends suggest that infection levels in this wave may have peaked earlier than last summer and therefore the disease remains better contained than in previous waves.

Experts believe the agency’s efforts to promote COVID-19 vaccines have been a major reason for the number of deaths.

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