Prairie State Wire

There were 268 deaths with COVID-19 listed as a contributing cause reported in Illinois during the week ending December 4, a 22.4 percent increase over the previous week, according to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In the week ending December 4, there were 2,490 deaths in the state. 19.1 percent of deaths were caused by heart disease, 18.9 percent were from cancer and 20.5 percent were from COVID-19. Additionally, 10.1 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	475	499
Malignant neoplasms (cancerous tumor)	470	469
COVID-19 (multiple cause)	268	219
COVID-19 (underlying cause)	242	196
Cerebrovascular diseases	146	139
Alzheimer's disease	99	74
Chronic lower respiratory diseases	97	89
Diabetes mellitus	66	82
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis	38	54
Influenza and pneumonia	36	42

Cause of Death	Number of Deaths 2021-12-04	Number of Deaths 2021-11-27
Alzheimer disease and dementia	251	216