From being over 70 to having an underlying health condition, a number of factors are known to increase your risk of death from coronavirus.
Now, new figures released by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) have revealed that gender may also play a key role in death risk.
The figures show that up to 3 April, there were 4,122 deaths registered in England and Wales involving COVID-19.
ONS explained: “Our figures are based on deaths registered in the stated period and include all deaths where “COVID-19” was mentioned on death certificates.”
According to ONS, there were more deaths involving COVID-19 among males than females up to 3 April. Of the 4,122 deaths registered, 2,523 were men and 1,599 women.
Gender appears to play a key factor in death rate in every age group, although the difference was most apparent in the 65-74 age bracket.
In that group, there were 246 female deaths, and 500 male deaths.
While the reason for this difference remains unclear, some scientists suggest that the death rate could be attributed to men taking the pandemic ‘less seriously’ than women.
Speaking to HuffPost Canada, Diana Sarosi, director of policy and campaigns for Oxfam Canada, said: “Women are very worried about what they’re seeing in terms of far-reaching and longterm impacts of this pandemic.
“What’s happening right now is very typical for any sort of crisis, in terms of women mobilizing to be first responders, taking on the care work.”
Meanwhile, the figures also showed that COVID-19 was the third most frequent underlying cause of death for deaths in England and Wales occurring in March.
Dementia and Alzheimer's disease was the underlying cause of death in the most deaths for the month (6,401 - the equivalent of 130 deaths per 100,000 people), and accounted for 14% of all deaths in March.
This was followed by ischaemic heart diseases, with 4,042 deaths (83 per 100,000 people), which accounted for 9% of the total.
