COVID-19 deaths with pre-existing conditions by age and whether they have received a vaccine

You asked

FOI/2021/2478​

Please provide the following information

1) The total figure of those who died with SARS-CoV-2 on their death certificate (no other causes eg road accident), who had no pre-existing medical conditions, split between over the age of 70 and those who were under the age of 70 since Jan 2021.

2) The number of people who have died with SARS-CoV-2 on the death certificate (no other cause of death eg road accident), who had no pre-existing medical conditions and had received 1 vaccination and also for those who had received 2 vaccinations.

We said

Thank you for your enquiry.

We hold the following analysis, which provides deaths from January 2020 to December 2020 by two age groups in the dataset in table 2: Pre-existing conditions of people who died due to COVID-19, England and Wales - Office for National Statistics. This is the latest data available. We have also pasted these tables below for convenience.

England

Wales

Quarter 1 data for 2021 data is available in table 2 of the publication.

Notes:

1. Based on non-neonatal deaths due to COVID-19; see the Definitions tab for information on our definition of COVID-19.
2. Numbers exclude one record with ordering anomalies that affect judgement on whether condition pre-existed.
3. Figures for England and Wales (combined) include deaths of non-residents. However, all other geographical breakdowns exclude deaths of non-residents and boundaries are based on the most up-to-date information available at time of publication.
4. Figures are for deaths registered in quarter 1 (January to March) 2021. There is a delay between a death occurring and it being registered; for more information see our impact of registration delays bulletin. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/articles/impactofregistrationdelaysonmortalitystatisticsinenglandandwales/2019

Unfortunately, we do not hold COVID-19 deaths with no pre-existing conditions split over and under the age of 70. We also do not hold analysis showing COVID-19 deaths with no pre-existing conditions and whether the deceased has received a vaccine. In order to fulfil these requests, we would need to create bespoke analysis. Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Public Authorities are not obligated to create information in order to respond to requests. We therefore consider this to be information not held.

You may also be interested in the following extra information:

The doctor or coroner certifying a death can record more than one health condition or event on the form. The medical certificate of cause of death has two parts, Part 1 contains the sequence of health conditions or events leading directly to death, while Part 2 can contain other health conditions that contributed to the death but were not part of the direct sequence. For statistical purposes one of the health conditions on the certificate is chosen as the 'underlying cause of death'. The underlying cause of death is defined as the health condition or event that started the train of events leading to death and is worked out according to rules from the World Health Organisation (WHO). COVID-19 is the underlying cause of death in around 92% of deaths where it was mentioned on the death certificate.

If someone dies in circumstances involving an accident, violence or suspicious circumstances, the case is referred to a coroner for investigation. A post-mortem examination is carried out and usually an inquest is held. The Coroner's Court hears all the evidence and follows legal rules of evidence when deciding the causes of death. It is extremely unlikely that a coroner would find that someone was involved in a traffic accident, or was the victim of violence, because of having COVID-19 or a positive COVID-19 test -- so they would not mention COVID-19 on the death certificate. This applies to any death caused by an accident, violence, poisoning, or other external causes.  Even if in an unusual case a death certificate mentioned both COVID-19 and a traffic accident (or other external causes), the World Health Organisation (WHO) rules for coding deaths mean that the traffic accident would be identified as the underlying cause of death in our data.

You can read in detail about the coding of causes of death and identifying the underlying cause in the ONS User guide to mortality statistics and the WHO International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) instruction manual.

In Figure 2 of the Deaths Registered weekly in England and Wales publication, using the download the data link you can see weekly figures of deaths involving COVID-19 and deaths due to COVID-19.  This information is updated every Tuesday.

We use the term "due to COVID-19" when referring only to deaths where that illness was recorded as the underlying cause of death. We use the term "involving COVID-19" when referring to deaths that had that illness mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, whether as an underlying cause or not.

COVID-19 deaths 2020:

COVID-19 deaths 2021 (latest available data is week 23, 11 June 2021)

You may also be interested in the figures published by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which can be accessed here.

If you have any enquiries about this data, feel free to contact Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.