The leading cause of death in 2020, in the European Union (EU), was cardiovascular disease and not covid-19, which ranked third in the year it became a pandemic, Eurostat announced on Tuesday.
According to data from the European Statistical Service, cardiovascular diseases – diseases that affect the circulatory system, i.e. the heart and blood vessels (arteries, veins and capillaries) – were the leading cause of death in Europe in the year Covid-19 reached Europe. 23 Member States, with the exception of Denmark, France, Ireland and the Netherlands, where cancer-related deaths predominated.
These two groups of diseases were the most deadly in the EU, with a total of 1.7 million deaths from cardiovascular disease and 1.2 million from cancer.
In the year the pandemic began, Covid-19 – caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus – was the third leading cause of death, with nearly 439,000 deaths.
According to the most recent data from the World Health Organization, the pandemic – declared on March 11, 2020 – had already caused 6,859,093 deaths worldwide by February 28.
Source: DN
