CDC: Coronavirus Now Third Leading Cause of Death in U.S., Behind Heart Disease, Cancer

© AFP/File Bryan R. Smith
AFP

A physician in San Diego, California, and data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are reporting that the coronavirus is now the third leading cause of death, killing 748 people a day in the United States.

This is only outranked by deaths from heart disease (1,774 a day) and cancer (1,641 a day).

The Sacramento Bee reported on the development highlighted by Dr. Maria Danilychev:

Danilychev, a San Diego doctor, made the conclusion and charted coronavirus’ growth throughout the country.Coronavirus has surpassed Alzheimer’s, stroke, chronic lung disease and accidents in deaths per day, her data shows.

CDC’s 2017 data shows more than 647,000 people die from heart disease each year and another 599,000 die from cancer. Accidents, which were previously the No. 3 cause of death, account for 169,000 deaths annually, according to the CDC.

President Donald Trump at his daily coronavirus briefing on Tuesday at the White House is predicting between 100,000 and 240,000 people in the U.S. will die from coronavirus.

“This could be a hell of a bad two weeks,” Trump said. “This is going to be three weeks like we’ve never seen before.”

More than 4,100 people have died in the United States from coronavirus and there have been more than 44,000 deaths worldwide as of April 1, according to Johns Hopkins University and Medicine.

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