COVID-19 Mortality in Adults Aged 65 and Over: United States, 2020.

COVID-19 was the underlying cause of death for a total of 350,381 deaths in the United States in 2020 (1). Although COVID-19 can affect people of any age, older adults were especially impacted during the first year of the pandemic: 81% of COVID-19 deaths in 2020 (282,836) occurred among those aged 65 and over. In this age group, COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death, after heart disease and cancer (1). This report describes COVID-19 mortality in 2020 by selected characteristics in the population aged 65 and over.