SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows COVID-19 was the third-leading cause of deaths in the United States in 2021.

The two reports were released in the CDC’s latest Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, which looked at death rates in the U.S. and found differences in death rates still remains between certain racial and ethnic minority groups.

The release from the CDC says the overall age-adjusted death rate increased by almost 1% in 2021 from 2020. Overall death rates were highest among non-Hispanic American Indian/Alaskan Native and non-Hispanic Black or African American people.

2021 was the second year that COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death in the U.S., behind heart disease and cancer.

Since the start of the pandemic, South Dakota has reported 2,901 COVID-19 deaths.

The second report shows that from 2020 to 2021, differences in COVID-19 death rates decreased among most racial and ethnic groups.

The report found disparities in the age-adjusted COVID-19 death rates decreased by 14%–40% for most racial and ethnic groups, including non-Hispanic White people, who accounted for 60%–65% of all people who died; and increased non-significantly (7.2%) for non-Hispanic Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander persons (0.2%–0.3% of people who died) compared with non-Hispanic multiracial people.