Austin News

City Of Austin issued the following announcement on Dec. 31.

This week, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics released the 2019 leading causes of death data for Travis County. Based on this 2019 data, COVID-19 deaths have surpassed accidental deaths, as the third-leading cause of death in Travis County. 

In 2019, accidents caused 516 deaths in Travis County and, as of Dec. 30, there have been 548 COVID-19 deaths in Austin-Travis County.  Heart disease (1,189 deaths) and cancer (1,226 deaths) comprised the top two leading causes of death in 2019. 

“When we look at our death data, we see that COVID-19 is a leading cause of death locally, statewide, and nationally,” said APH Director Stephanie Hayden.  “We have hit another unfortunate milestone in our community.”

 

Leading Causes of Death, Travis County, 2019	Number of Reported Deaths
Malignant neoplasms [cancer]	1,226
Heart diseases	1,189
Accidents [unintentional injuries]	516
Cerebrovascular diseases [strokes]	257
Alzheimer disease	236
Chronic lower respiratory diseases	216
Intentional self-harm [suicide]	167
Diabetes mellitus	159
Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis	128
Parkinson disease	87
Influenza and pneumonia	86
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis	80
Pneumonitis due to solids and liquids [lung inflammation]	59
Septicemia [sepsis]	53
Certain conditions originating in the perinatal period	46

“We present these numbers to remind our community of the vast spread of misinformation around COVID-19,” said Dr. Mark Escott, Austin-Travis County Interim Health Authority. “If we do not take this virus seriously in our community, we have the real possibility that every family will know someone who was hospitalized or who has died from COVID-19.” 

Based on historical trends, APH can compare the approximate number of deaths in 2019 with 2020 for each cause of death listed. A final cause of death is determined once a death certificate is filed with the APH Office of Vital Records. 

Across the state of Texas in 2018, the top four leading causes of death were heart disease, cancer, stroke, and chronic lower respiratory diseases. In the United States in 2018, the top four leading causes of death were heart disease, cancer, accidents, and chronic lower respiratory disease. 

For COVID-19 updates and information, visit AustinTexas.gov/COVID19.

Original source can be found here.