Every human death that has ever occurred was caused by covid-19; it's just that we hadn't discovered the virus yet and thus kept mistakenly identifying causes of death as things like "gunshot wounds", "asphyxiation", "decapitation", or "old age".

We now understand that all of these poor, misdiagnosed people actually died from the magical super-virus, and they would have survived if only they had known to wear face masks! (with the possible exception of the decapitated people; it's not yet clear whether or not the face still has to be attached to the body in order for a face mask to protect that body from covid)