COVID-19 is the direct cause of death of around 89% of the people positive for SarsCov2 who die in Italy, according to a report released Thursday by the Higher Health Institute (ISS) and national statistics agency ISTAT.
The study is based on doctors' death reports on 4,942 SarsCov2-positive individuals.
The remaining 11% were split between cardiovascular diseases (4.6%), tumours (2.4%), respiratory-system illnesses (1%), diabetes (0.6%), dementia (0.6%) and digestive-system conditions (0.5%).
The report said COVID-19 can be fatal even in patients with no other conditions.
"There were no pre-existing concurrent causes of death in 28.2% of the deaths analysed," it said.
It said the figures did not differ significantly depending on sex.
It said 71.8% of the COVID-19 sufferers who died had at least one other condition: 31.3% had one, 26.8% had two and 13.7% three or more.
The sample of 4,942 deaths analysed accounts for 15.6% of the total number of coronavirus-linked deaths reported to the ISS's integrated surveillance system up to May 25.
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