Figure 2.
The death certification form demonstrates how an underlying cause of death is recorded. The immediate cause of death listed on line a is acute respiratory distress syndrome with a duration of two days. This condition is shown as resulting from pneumonia recorded on line b with a duration of ten days. Pneumonia is, in turn, attributed to laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 recorded on line c with a duration of fourteen days. An annotation identifies COVID-19 as the underlying cause of death because it initiated the chain of medical events that ultimately resulted in death.Completed international form of medical certificate cause of death – COVID-19 death
Source:WHO, 2020b, p. 4