Rate of alcohol-related deaths in US up 30 pct in 1st year of COVID-19

NEW YORK - The rate of deaths that can be directly attributed to alcohol rose nearly 30 percent in the United States during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, US media reported, citing new government data.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had already said the overall number of such deaths rose in 2020 and 2021, The Associated Press reported Friday.

Two reports from the CDC last week provided further details on which groups have the highest death rates and which states are seeing the largest numbers.

A report released on Friday focused on more than a dozen kinds of "alcohol-induced" deaths that were wholly blamed on drinking. Examples include alcohol-caused liver or pancreas failure, alcohol poisoning, withdrawal and certain other diseases. There were more than 52,000 such deaths last year, up from 39,000 in 2019.

"The rate of such deaths had been increasing in the two decades before the pandemic, by 7 percent or less each year," said the Associated Press report.

In 2020, they rose 26 percent, to about 13 deaths per 100,000 Americans, the highest rate recorded in at least 40 years, it added.