FOI Ref: FOI/2022/3945
You asked
Please supply the following information:
How many people under 20 in the UK have died as a result of COVID? Of these, how many had co-morbidities?
How many people under 20 have died after vaccination? Of these, how many had co-morbidities?
In the past 3 months, how many unvaccinated people under 50 have gone into hospital with serious problems from COVID-19 and how many of these died, of those who died how many had co-morbidities?
In the past 3 months, how many people have had an adverse reaction to the vaccine as a number and also a percentage?
How many people who have had COVID-19 got reinfected and how many of these had serious implications? Breakdown with and without vaccination.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
We are responsible for the production of mortality data for England and Wales, this is driven by information collected from the death certificate at death registration. National Records Scotland (NRS) and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) are responsible for statistics pertaining to Scotland and Northern Ireland. They can be contacted at foi@nrscotland.gov.uk and info@nisra.gov.uk respectively.
As part of a collaboration, we publish headline weekly deaths involving COVID-19 for the UK and constituent countries in our Deaths Registered Weekly in England and Wales publication. This provides deaths involving COVID-19 for the UK up to the age of 19, which will fulfil your first request.
For England and Wales, we also hold the following analysis: Single year of age and average age of death of people whose death was due to or involved COVID-19. This analysis provides monthly all cause and COVID-19 deaths by single year of age.
COVID-19 deaths with pre-existing conditions under the age of 20
We hold the following analysis for December 2021, which shows death due to COVID-19 by pre-existing conditions: Pre-existing conditions of people who died due to COVID-19, England and Wales. Data for January and February 2022 will be published in April 2022 as part of the Quarter 1 2022 publication. This publication is produced using broad age groups.
We can offer a custom output of tables for further disaggregation of this data. Special extracts and tabulations of mortality data for England and Wales are available to order (subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources and agreements of costs, where appropriate). Such enquiries can be made to: Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.
Deaths involving under 20s by vaccination status
We hold the following analysis: "Deaths involving COVID-19 by Vaccination Status, England: deaths occurring between 2 January and 31 December 2021".
Table 5 of this publication shows monthly age-standardised mortality rates by age-group and vaccination status for deaths involving COVID-19 from January to December 2021.
This includes the following vaccine status.
unvaccinated
vaccinated with 1 dose only, less than 21 days after vaccination
vaccinated with 1 dose only, at least 21 days after vaccination
vaccinated with 2 doses, less than 21 days after second vaccination
vaccinated with 2 doses, at least 21 days after second vaccination
vaccinated with 3 doses, less than 21 days after third or booster vaccination
vaccinated with 3 doses, at least 21 days after third or booster vaccination
The data are for England only, as vaccinations data for Wales is not yet available to be linked to the mortality dataset and the PHDA covers England only. Therefore, we consider data for Wales as information not held.
Unfortunately, we do not hold analysis showing deaths by lower age bands or including pre-existing conditions and vaccination status. In order to fulfil this request, we would need to complete complex data linkage of mortality data and NIMS Data and use a high level of statistical skill and judgement in order to create bespoke analysis. Under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000, Public Authorities are not obligated to create information to respond to requests. This information therefore is not held.
COVID-19 hospitalisations and mortality by age and pre-existing conditions
We do not hold up-to-date information on hospitalisations. Our data on hospital episodes is obtained from the Hospital Episode Statistics published by NHS Digital with an approximately 3 month delay. We use this data to determine pre-existing conditions and general health of individuals, but not to analyse recent hospitalisations due to COVID-19. Therefore, we do not hold the information requested. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) produce a weekly surveillance report which looks at the impact on hospitalisations, infection, vaccine effectiveness and COVID-19 mortality. If you have further enquiries regarding this report, they can be contacted on InformationRights@UKHSA.gov.uk
NHS Digital also publish statistics regarding hospital and ICU admissions. They can be contacted on enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk and by telephone 0300 303 5678
We do publish COVID-19 deaths by place of occurrence (including hospitals, hospices, and care homes). However, we cannot advise if the deceased was admitted to hospital with COVID-19, we can only advise that COVID-19 was recorded on their death certificate as either the underlying cause of death or a contributory mention.
We have not conducted analysis of hospital deaths involving COVID-19 by pre-existing condition. However, this work could also be commissioned as a bespoke request using the contact details previously provided.
Adverse Reactions
We do not hold data on COVID-19 adverse reactions to vaccines, except for deaths due to a COVID-19 vaccination.
Our data is derived from the death certificate, using information received at the point of death registration. For the vaccine to be mentioned on the death certificate the medical professional certifying the death must have believed, to the best of their knowledge, that the vaccine was part of the events that led to the death. Deaths reported as due to or involving the COVID-19 vaccination are recorded using ICD-10 code U12.9. We do not receive information on the brand of vaccination administered.
We report deaths attributed to adverse reaction to the COVID-19 vaccination monthly within our Monthly Mortality Analysis. The latest data available is January 2022.
There are currently 24 deaths registered in England and Wales with the aligning ICD codes for this, 18 of these deaths have ICD-10 U12.9 as the underlying cause.
Please note that these are deaths across all age groups since the rollout of the vaccination in December 2020 and there are no deaths registered under the age of 30.
This data will be updated for February 2022 on 24 March 2022.
More information regarding the difference in ONS data to Yellow Card scheme data can be found in this blog. How many people have died as a result of a COVID-19 vaccine? | National Statistical (ons.gov.uk)
You may be interested in the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA, previously Public Health England) COVID-19 vaccine surveillance strategy. In section 4, you can find out about vaccine safety surveillance for rapid detection and evaluation of possible adverse events associated with vaccination. The vaccine safety surveillance is undertaken in collaboration with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). They produce a weekly yellow card report that details reported suspected side effects to the vaccines. For more information you can contact MHRA at info@mhra.gov.uk and you can contact UKHSA at informationrights@ukhsa.gov.uk.
COVID-19 reinfections
You can find counts and rates of reinfections identified in our survey on tab 5a of the 16 February 2022 edition of the dataset accompanying our Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Survey, characteristics of people testing positive for COVID-19, UK article. Please note that this is not representative of the UK and only includes individuals in the survey.
Please note that the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA, formerly Public Health England) are responsible for NHS Test and Trace. You may be interested in section 2.7 Reinfections of the following technical briefing: SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern and variants under investigation in England which provides information on reinfections with the Omicron variant. For more information on NHS test and trace data and reinfections, you can contact UKHSA via email at informationrights@ukhsa.gov.uk.
We do not hold data on reinfections with serious implications by vaccine status. Your query may be better placed with UKHSA, who are responsible for NHS Test and Trace and official UK data on hospital admissions. They can be contacted via email at informationrights@ukhsa.gov.uk.
Further information and an overview of data about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and other sources can be found in our Coronavirus (COVID-19) latest insights tool.