About 415,000 Americans died of COVID-19 in 2021, making it the third leading cause of death in the U.S. for the second consecutive year, according to provisional data from the CDC.
The two leading causes of deaths last year were heart disease and cancer, respectively, with provisional death tolls of about 693,000 and 605,000, respectively, according to the data published April 22.
Three more COVID-19 updates:
1. The nation's daily case average continues to rise, data from The New York Times shows. On April 24, the daily average was 46,925, marking a 51 percent jump from the two weeks prior.
2. Cases in New York City are declining for the first time since March, according to local data cited by Bloomberg. The seven-day average for cases in Manhattan dropped four days straight through April 19. Meanwhile, officials in Philadelphia lifted an indoor mask mandate April 22, just four days after it became the first major U.S. city to reimpose the indoor requirement, the Times reports. Health officials pointed to declining case counts and hospitalizations as a reason to lift the rule.
3. The nation's cumulative COVID-19 death toll is inching toward 1 million, according to CDC data. As of April 24, the agency had reported 988,589 deaths.