Heart disease and dementia were the top 2 leading causes of death in Oz in 2022, according to new data from the Bureau of Statistics. That’s not new, but COVID taking out third place is the first time an infectious disease has been one of the top causes of death since an influenza outbreak in 1970. And it’s also a steep jump for COVID, which was the 33rd most-common cause of death in 2021… That’s down to 2022’s deadly Omicron wave, which accounted for one in 10 Aussie deaths that year. The top 5 causes of death were rounded out by lung cancer and cerebrovascular diseases, including stroke. Suicide was the leading cause of premature death in 2022, and while drug-induced deaths declined, alcohol-related deaths rose for the fourth year in a row.