COVID-19 fell to fourth leading cause of death for Americans in 2022, CDC reports

The spread of COVID-19 has been slowing, but the virus still remained one of the leading causes of death for Americans in 2022, falling from third place to fourth place last year.

Among nearly 3.3 million fatalities reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics in 2022, COVID-19 was the underlying cause listed on 186,702 death certificates, substantially down from 416,893 in 2021.

That means the virus now ranks behind heart disease, cancer, and unintentional injuries — a category largely driven by drug overdoses — which each caused the loss of more lives last year.