COVID-19 affect on 2019-2021 Mortality and illness statistics

​FOI Reference: FOI/2021/3076

You asked

I would like to know the following answers please:

1.     What is the average age of death from or with Covid 19 in 2020 and 2021?

2.     How many adults have died with Covid?

3.     How many adults have died of Covid?

4.     How many uk residents have had 2 Covid vaccines?

5.     How many uk residents have had 1 Covid vaccines?

6.     How many people have died of the vaccine between Dec 2020 and Oct 2021?

7.     Has there been a rise in average numbers for adults with blood clots in 2021 compared to 2019? By how much?

8.     Has there been a rise in cardiac problems in adults in 2021 compared to 2019?

9.     What is the monthly difference of death figures for the whole of the UK in 2021 compared to 2019?

10. How many children (0-17) have died of Covid 19 in the UK?

11. How many children (0-17) have died with Covid 19 in the UK?

12. Has there been a rise in still births and miscarriages in 2021 compared to 2019? Monthly figures please Jan - Oct for both years.

13. Has there been a rise in neurological patients in 2021 compared to 2019?

14. Has there been a rise in stroke patients in 2021 compared to 2019?

15. Has there been a rise in meningitis in 2021 compared to 2019?

16. Has there been a rise in children's admissions to hospital in Aug and Sept 2021 compared to 2019?

17. How much percentage of the UK population have had no Covid vaccinations?

18. What is the percentage of BAME community that have taken the Covid vaccinations compared to white population in UK?

19. Total number of deaths in the UK for Jan - Sept 2021?

20. Total numbers of deaths in UK for Jan - Sept 2019?

We said

Thank you for your request.

We are responsible for the provision of mortality statistics for England and Wales. National Records Scotland (NRS) and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) are responsible for statistics pertaining to Scotland and Northern Ireland. Therefore, we do not hold the requested data for the whole of the UK. Should you wish to obtain this data from NRS and NISRA, they can be contacted at foi@nrscotland.gov.uk and info@nisra.gov.uk respectively.

Average age of COVID-19 deaths

We hold the following analysis Single year of age and average age of death of people whose death was due to or involved COVID-19 which provides ingle year of age and average age of death (median and mean) of persons whose death was due to COVID-19 or involved COVID-19, deaths registered in March 2020 to September 2021, England and Wales. Please note that data for 2021 is provisional.

Adult deaths "of" COVID and "With COVID-19"

We use the term "due to COVID-19" when referring only to deaths with an underlying cause of death as COVID-19 and we use the term "involving COVID-19" when referring to deaths that had COVID-19 mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, whether as an underlying cause or not. Information on cause of death coding is available in:

•       Coronavirus and mortality in England and Wales methodology

•       User guide to mortality statistics

Our analysis Single year of age and average age of death of people whose death was due to or involved COVID-19 will provide deaths due to and involving COVID-19 for 2020 and up to September 2021. Data for October will be published on 23November 2021

There have been 148,463 deaths aged 18 or over involving COVID-19 and 131,762 deaths registered due to COVID-19 aged 18 or over.

COVID-19 Vaccine Related Deaths

You can find the number of deaths attributed to adverse reactions to the COVID-19 vaccination in table 12 of our Monthly Mortality Analysis dataset. There are currently 9 deaths registered in England and Wales with the aligning ICD codes for this. However, should this change, they will be updated in this table. The latest data available is September 2021, with October's analysis due to be published on 23November 2021.

As such, this information is considered exempt under Section 22(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, whereby information is exempt from release if there is a view to publish the information in the future. Furthermore, as a central government department and producer of official statistics, we need to have the freedom to be able to determine our own publication timetables. This is to allow us to deal with the necessary preparation, administration and context of publications. It would be unreasonable to consider disclosure when to do so would undermine our functions.

This exemption is subject to a public interest test. We recognise the desirability of information being freely available and this is considered by ONS when publication schedules   are set in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics. The need for timely data must be balanced against the practicalities of applying statistical skill and judgement to produce the high quality, assured data needed to inform decision-making. If this balance is incorrectly applied, then we run the risk of decisions being based on inaccurate data which is arguably not in the public interest.  This will have an impact on public trust in official statistics in a time when accuracy of official statistics is more important to the public than ever before.

UK Health Security Agency also publish a weekly surveillance report which looks at the impact on hospitalisations, infection, vaccine effectiveness and mortality.

Adults with blood clots in 2019 and 2021

ONS do not hold data regarding NHS diagnosis of blood clots.

NHS Digital may be better placed to answer your enquiry. They can be contacted via email at enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk

Rise in Cardiac problems in 2019-2021

ONS do not hold data regarding NHS diagnosis of Cardiac issues.

NHS Digital may be better placed to answer your enquiry. They can be contacted via email at enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk

Monthly deaths in 2019 and 2021

Tables 1 and 2 in the Monthly Mortality Analysis show monthly deaths in England and Wales from 2001.

Child deaths from and with Covid-19 in the UK

ONS have recently published a breakdown of COVID-19 deaths by single year of age, please see table 1 of Single year of age and average age of death of people whose death was due to or involved COVID-19, you can use these figures to calculate the total number of deaths of those aged up to 17, where COVID-19 was the underlying cause for deaths registered in England and Wales.

There have been 36 deaths in total aged 17 and under, all are due to COVID-19.

Monthly still-birth and miscarriage figures for 2019 and 2021

ONS only produces births data for England and Wales, we do not hold this data for the UK.

Our most recent births data for England and Wales which includes stillbirths by month of occurrence is held within the Provisional births in England and Wales dataset. Please see table 5. Please note, birth statistics in this table are derived using NHS birth notifications; therefore, they will differ from previously published births data -- derived from birth registrations.

We do not collect information on miscarriages as they are not registered via the birth registration process.

You may be able to obtain this information from NHS Digital, they can be contacted via email at enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk.

Neurological illnesses, stroke patients and meningitis diagnosis in 2019 and 2021

We do not hold this information.

You may be able to obtain this information from NHS Digital, they can be contacted via email at enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk.

Child admissions to hospital August and September 2021 compared to 2019?

We do not hold information on children admitted to hospital.

You may be able to obtain this information from NHS Digital, they can be contacted via email at enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk

Total number of deaths in the UK for Jan - Sept 2021?

ONS produce deaths registered monthly in England and Wales (provisional monthly death figures, please select the 2021 dataset). We also produce Monthly Mortality Analysis dataset which will provide Monthly figures for England and Wales. Data is provided above.  We do not hold monthly all cause deaths for the UK.

Total numbers of deaths in UK for Jan - Sept 2019?

ONS produce Monthly Mortality Analysis dataset which will provide Monthly figures for 2019. This has also been provided in an earlier answer.  We do not hold monthly all cause deaths for the UK.

If you would like to discuss your request further, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk.

Vaccination uptake in the UK

Regarding questions 5 and 6, you can find official data on vaccinations on the GOV.UK coronavirus dashboard. You can also find the percentage of the adult population vaccinated by first and second dose in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland respectively on tab 1e, tab 2d, tab 3d, and tab 4d in the dataset accompanying our antibody and vaccination bulletin. Our vaccine estimates are produced to provide context alongside our antibodies estimates and do not replace the official government figures on vaccinations, which are a more precise count of total vaccines issued. While we would expect the overall trend of our estimated number of people who have received vaccines to increase, it is possible that in some weeks, the estimate may remain the same or decrease as a result of sampling variability (for example, we may have a lower number of participants recording a vaccination in the latest week compared with an earlier week).

Further information and an overview of data about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic from the Office for National Statistic (ONS) and other sources can be found in our Coronavirus (COVID-19) latest insights tool.

Vaccination rates by ethnic group in England can be found on the CHIME tool.

Based on the latest available data from the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey¹ (OPN), a sample survey of adults aged 16 years and over in Great Britain, covering the period 23 June to 18 July 2021²:

• An estimated 80% of Ethnic Minority Group³ adults had received either one (32%) or two (48%) doses of a coronavirus vaccine.

• An estimated 91% of White adults had had received either one (22%) or two (69%) doses of a coronavirus vaccine.

The differences in estimates of the proportion of Ethnic Minority Group and White adults who have received one dose, two doses or either as shown are statistically significant based on non-overlapping confidence intervals.

For more information, confidence intervals associated with these estimates and more detailed breakdowns by ethnicity please see the Coronavirus and vaccine hesitancy, Great Britain series. This series provides estimates by pooling data from a number of waves of the OPN surveys regular data collection. Pooling waves of data together increases sample sizes, allowing us to explore vaccine uptake for different groups of the population such as by ethnicity.

Specifically, please see Table 4 of  Coronavirus and vaccine hesitancy, Great Britain dataset and Table 2 Coronavirus and the social impacts on Great Britain: Vaccine offers and uptake including attitudes to second dose by age, sex and ethnicity of the datasets associated with this release.

More recent data is available within a regularly published OPN release; estimates of vaccine uptake among all adults in Great Britain and by age, sex and region, are currently published every two weeks in the Coronavirus and the social impacts on Great Britain release. As this regular release uses a single wave of the survey, it does not allow a large enough sample size to investigate vaccine uptake by ethnicity.

Based on the latest available data covering the period 6 to 17 October 2021:

• An estimated 95% of all adults in Great Britain had had received either one (5%) or two (90%) doses of a coronavirus vaccine

Note that all estimates from the OPN are from a sample of adults and may differ from the latest official data on the number of adults who have received the COVID-19 vaccination. This survey does not include adults living in care homes or other establishments.

The forthcoming publication Coronavirus and changing attitudes towards vaccination, England: 7 to 16 September 2021 may be of interest and will include estimates of  vaccine uptake among previously hesitant⁴ adults broken down by ethnicity.

We do not hold data on the percentage of the UK population with no COVID-19 vaccination. Your query may be better placed with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). They can be contacted via email at enquiries@ukhsa.gov.uk or via FOI email at InformationRights@UKHSA.gov.uk.

Footnotes:

1. Further information on the survey design and quality of the OPN can be found in the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey Quality and Methodology Information.

2. This analysis is based on a pooled dataset comprising four waves of the OPN: 23 to 27 June, 30 June to 4 July, 7 to 11 July, and 14 to 18 July 2021.

3. Ethnic Minority Group refers to: White and Black Caribbean, White and Black African, White and Asian, Any other Mixed ethnic background, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Chinese, Any other Asian background, African, Caribbean, Any other Black/African/Caribbean background, Arab or Any other ethnic group.

The ethnicity disaggregation used and presented in the published data highlighted (Table 4 of  Coronavirus and vaccine hesitancy, Great Britain dataset and Coronavirus and the social impacts on Great Britain: Vaccine offers and uptake including attitudes to second dose by age, sex and ethnicity) has been chosen to provide the most granular breakdown possible, while producing robust estimates based on sample sizes, in line with the GSS Ethnicity Harmonised standard. For more information see the Notes tab within these datasets.

4. Hesitant refers to adults who:

• Have been offered a vaccine and decided not to be vaccinated
• Report being very or fairly unlikely to have a vaccine if offered
• Responded "neither likely nor unlikely", "don't know" or "prefer not to say" to the question "if a vaccine for the coronavirus (COVID-19) was offered to you, how likely or unlikely would you be to have the vaccine?".

Alternatively, if you are interested in accessing the microdata for this survey, you can apply to be an accredited researcher with the secure research service (SRS), details of which can be found via the following link: Research Project Accreditation. Once you have become an accredited researcher, you can make a project application to access the microdata.

Further information and an overview of data about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic from the Office for National Statistic (ONS) and other sources can be found in our Coronavirus (COVID-19) latest insights tool.