Characteristics of Persons Who Died with COVID-19 — United States, February 12–May 18, 2020
Jonathan M. Wortham, James T. Lee, Sandy Althomsons, Julia Latash, Alexander Davidson, Kevin Guerra, Kenya Murray, Emily McGibbon, Carolina Pichardo, Brian Toro, Lan Li, Marc Paladini, Meredith L. Eddy, Kathleen H. Reilly, Lisa McHugh, Deepam Thomas, Stella Chin‐Shaw Tsai, Mojisola Ojo, Samantha Rolland, Maya Bhat, Katherine E. Hutchinson, Jennifer Sabel, Seth Eckel, Jim Collins, Catherine Donovan, Anna B. Cope, Breanna Kawasaki, Sarah McLafferty, Nisha B. Alden, Rachel Herlihy, Bree Barbeau, Angela Dunn, Charles Clark, Pamela Pontones, Meagan McLafferty, Dean E. Sidelinger, Anna Krueger, Leslie Kollmann, Linnea Larson, Stacy Holzbauer, Ruth Lynfield, Ryan P. Westergaard, Richard L. Crawford, Lin Zhao, Jonathan Bressler, Jennifer S. Read, John Dunn, Adele Lewis, Gillian Richardson, Julie Hand, Theresa Sokol, Susan Hocevar Adkins, Brooke Leitgeb, Talia Pindyck, Taniece Eure, Karen K. Wong, Deblina Datta, Grace D. Appiah, Jessica Brown, Rita M. Traxler, Emilia H. Koumans, Sarah Reagan-Steiner
Abstract
During January 1, 2020-May 18, 2020, approximately 1.3 million cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and 83,000 COVID-19-associated deaths were reported in the United States (1). Understanding the demographic and clinical characteristics of decedents could inform medical and public health interventions focused on preventing COVID-19-associated mortality. This report describes decedents with laboratory-confirmed infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, using data from 1) the standardized CDC case-report form (case-based surveillance) (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/php/reporting-pui.html) and 2) supplementary data (supplemental surveillance), such as underlying medical conditions and location of death, obtained through collaboration between CDC and 16 public health jurisdictions (15 states and New York City).