99.9% of the time, it is the exact same thing. I work with medical examiners dozens of times per year, I read autopsies and death certificates dozens of times per months.
It's extremely rare for any death to have a singular isolated cause of death. Sure, "gun shots to the chest" are pretty obvious, "died in nuclear blast" etc.
But most deaths are multi-factorial, leading to cardiac arrest.
So if someone has Stage 4 cancer -- they don't literally die of cancer. The cancer slowly diminishes their vital organs, as their vital systems start to decline, eventually they are too weak to survive. So guess what -- Someone with cancer who ALSO has active Covid -- Their weakened body can't fight the Covid, so they die. Without Covid, they may have lived another 3 months.. 6 months... 12 months. But Covid is what hit their body, that they couldn't recover from.
Someone else used the example of strokes -- Strokes are directly caused by Covid. Studies have shown Covid causes blood clots... which cause ischemic strokes.
So it's true -- if someone dies in a car accident where their car explodes and they die in the explosion... that wouldn't be a Covid death.
On the other hand, if they are in a traumatic car accident, brought into the ER, they have suffered broken ribs in the car accident. They are positive for Covid, and they have pleural effusions and opacity due to the Covid, further diminishing their pulmonary function, and they then arrest and die.... Then that absolutely would be a death caused by both car accident AND by Covid.