By Ella Dionisio

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on Tuesday said 4.9 percent of total registered deaths in 2020 were due to COVID-19.

In its latest report, PSA said registered deaths due to COVID-19 accounted for a total of 30,140 deaths or 4.9 percent of the total registered deaths in 2020.

By classification, COVID-19 with virus not identified (U07.2) was the seventh leading cause of death in the country with 20, 840 thousand or 3.4 percent. Registered deaths due to COVID-19 with virus identified accounted for 9, 300 or 1.5 percent of the total deaths in 2020.

Deaths due to COVID-19 with virus identified (U07.1) were placed at the top 14 cause of death in 2020.

PSA said based on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) emergency codes, U07.1 is used when COVID-19 is confirmed by a laboratory test, while code U07.2 refers to COVID-19-virus not identified, used for suspected or probable cases as well as clinically-epidemiologically diagnosed COVID-19 cases where testing was not completed or inconclusive.

PSA said among the 17 regions, the National Capital Region (NCR) registered the highest number of deaths due to COVID-19 with 13,000 or 43.1 percent of the total COVID-19 deaths.

“Quezon City reported the highest number of deaths due to COVID-19, with 2, 640 deaths or 20.3 percent of the total COVID-19 deaths in the region. This was followed by the City of Manila and City of Pasig with 1,960 and 1, 470 COVID-19 deaths, respectively.

Calabarzon ranked second with 7, 000 deaths or 23.2 percent, while Central Luzon came in third with 2, 690 deaths or 8.9 percent.

Other regions that registered over 1,000 COVID-19 deaths were Central Visayas and Western Visayas, with 2, 360 and 1,140 deaths, respectively.

The Bangsamoro region reported the least number of registered COVID-19 deaths with only 52 or 0.2 percent of the total.

Meanwhile, PSA said the top three causes of death in the country in 2020 were ischaemic heart diseases, neoplasms, and cerebrovascular diseases.

“Incidentally, these were also the leading causes of death in 2019,” it said.

In 2020, PSA said deaths due to ischaemic heart diseases reached 105,110 cases or 17.1 percent of the total deaths in the country.

“This was an increase of about 7.8 percent from the 97, 480 deaths or 15.7 percent of the total deaths in 2019,” PSA said.

PSA said neoplasms, commonly known as “cancer”, came in second with 66,180 deaths. This showed a decrease of -3.6 percent from the previous year’s 68, 660 cases.

Cerebrovascular diseases were the third leading cause which accounted for 64, 100 deaths.

Deaths due to diabetes mellitus recorded 39, 720 and ranked fourth in 2020,

Deaths due to pneumonia, which recorded 34, 250 cases in 2020, posted a -45.4 percent decrease from 62, 720 thousand cases in 2019, making it the fifth leading cause of death.