Bluegrass Times

There were 130 deaths with COVID-19 listed as the underlying cause reported in Kentucky during the week ending August 14, a 80.6 percent increase over the previous week, according to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In the week ending August 14, there were 1,000 deaths in the state. 19 percent of deaths were caused by heart disease, 18.5 percent were from cancer and 27.3 percent were from COVID-19. Additionally, 6.8 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 2021-08-14	Number of Deaths 2021-08-07
Heart disease	190	209
Malignant neoplasms (cancerous tumor)	185	182
COVID-19 (multiple cause)	143	84
COVID-19 (underlying cause)	130	72
Chronic lower respiratory diseases	49	71
Cerebrovascular diseases	43	49
Diabetes mellitus	30	34
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis	19	22
Alzheimer's disease	17	28
Influenza and pneumonia	< 10	18

Cause of Death	Number of Deaths 2021-08-14	Number of Deaths 2021-08-07
Alzheimer disease and dementia	68	69