Prairie State Wire

There were 51 deaths with COVID-19 listed as the underlying cause reported in Illinois during the week ending May 28, a 82.1% increase over the previous week, according to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In the week ending May 28, there were 1,859 deaths in the state. 21.5% of deaths were caused by heart disease, 21.9% were from cancer and 6.3% were from COVID-19.

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	Deaths in Week Ending May 28	Deaths in Week Ending May 21
Malignant neoplasms (cancerous tumor)	407	371
Heart disease	400	389
Cerebrovascular diseases	100	116
Chronic lower respiratory diseases	84	105
Alzheimer's disease	77	76
COVID-19 (multiple cause)	66	47
Diabetes mellitus	52	42
COVID-19 (underlying cause)	51	28
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis	50	57
Influenza and pneumonia	27	20