Here is how Kansas’ COVID-19 deaths in 2020 compare to other top causes of death

Despite the first COVID-19 death in Kansas being reported in March, the virus will end up as one of the leading causes of Kansas deaths in 2020 if recent trends hold.

Kansas Department of Health and Environment data from 2017, 2018 and 2019 — the most recent years available — shows a consistent Top 10 leading causes of death, with the number of deaths in each category varying little year to year.

Heart disease and cancerous tumors killed more than 5,000 Kansans each of those years. The other categories were all under 2,000 deaths in each of the years.

COVID-19’s 2020 total would fall as the third-highest cause of death if it appeared in any of those years.

In 2020, coronavirus killed 2,741 people in Kansas, according to the KDHE.

The COVID-19 deaths are more than four and a half times higher than the average of “pneumonia and influenza” deaths during those years. The average number of pneumonia and influenza deaths between 2017-2019 was 560. Coronavirus had, at first, had been compared to the flu. Pneumonia and influenza were near or at the bottom of the Top 10 causes of deaths in each of the three years.

In 2019, the average age within the Top 10 death categories ranged from a low of 43.9 in suicides to a high of 86.6 attributed to Alzheimer’s disease.

The average age of 2020 COVID-19 deaths are not readily available. The median age was 81 through December.

This story was originally published January 19, 2021 at 4:49 AM.