FOI Ref: FOI/2022/3629
You asked
Please supply the number of COVID-19 deaths registered in England between the 1 March 2020 to 31 May 2020.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
ONS publish deaths 'due to' COVID-19 (where it was recorded as the underlying cause of death) and deaths 'involving' COVID-19 (where it was mentioned anywhere on the death certificate).
Monthly death registrations, due to and involving COVID-19, England, 2020, can be found in Table 1 of this dataset: Deaths due to COVID-19, registered in England and Wales: 2020. The total figures are shown in the table below.
| Deaths due to COVD-19 | 40,996 |
|---|---|
| Deaths involving COVID-19 | 43,645 |
Download this table Number of death registrations, due to and involving COVID-19, England, 1 March 2020 to 31 May 20201,2,3
.xls .csv1. Cause of death was defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes U07.1; U07.2; U09.9 and U10.9. The ICD code U10.9 is only used to code mentions of COVD-19, it is not considered an underlying cause of death. The number of deaths due to COVID-19 are included in the total number of deaths involving COVID-19; the two figures cannot be added together.
2. Figures are for persons usually resident in England, based on November 2021 National Statistics Postcode boundaries.
3. Figures are for deaths registered between 01/03/2020 and 31/03/2020. There can be a delay between the date a death occurred and the date a death was registered. Further information on registration delays for a range of causes can be found on the ONS website.
Latest numbers of deaths involving COVID-19 for England and Wales can be found in our Deaths registered weekly in England and Wales and Monthly mortality analysis publications.
If you wish to discuss this further, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk.