FOI Ref: FOI/2021/3273
You asked
Please supply the following information:
1) The total number of unvaccinated* individuals hospitalized with confirmed Covid-19 between 23rd August 2021 and 14th November 2021.
2) The total number of fully vaccinated* individuals hospitalized with confirmed Covid-19 between 23rd August 2021 and 14th November 2021.
3) The total number of unvaccinated individuals who died of Covid-19 between 23rd August 2021 and 14th November 2021.
4) The total number of fully vaccinated individuals who died of Covid-19 between 23rd August 2021 and 14th November 2021.
5) The rate (per 100K) of Covid-19 deaths in unvaccinated individuals between 23rd August 2021 and 14th November 2021 and between 23rd August 2020 and 14th November 2020
For the above requests, please supply numbers broken down by age (e.g. 12-19, 20-29, 30-39, and so on). If a detailed breakdown is not possible, then at least a breakdown between over 60's and under 60's.
For purposes of this current investigation, by unvaccinatedis thoaw who have not yet received a single dose of any vaccine.
*For the purposes of this current investigation, by fully vaccinated is those who have received either 2 doses of the Pfizer, Moderna, and/or AstraZeneca vaccine (also where two brands were combined) or 1 dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Those who have received what has been termed a 'booster' must not be counted.
We said
Thank you for your response.
In relation to questions 1 and 2, 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. Therefore, we use this data to determine pre-existing conditions and general health of individuals, but not to analyse recent hospitalisations due to COVID-19.
In relation to questions 3, 4 and 4, we would be unable to provide you data on the total number of unvaccinated and fully vaccinated individuals who died or the COVID-19 mortality rate between 23 August and 14 November 2021, by age group. Whilst we hold information on deaths and receive data on vaccinations from the National Immunisation Management System (NIMS), we do not hold any analysis on this data other than that published in our "Deaths by vaccination status" releases. In order to fulfil this request, we would need use a high level of statistical skill and judgement including complex data linkage and analysis of the mortality data and vaccinations data from the NIMS in order to create a bespoke analysis or table. 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.
Our publication "Deaths involving COVID-19 by vaccination status, England, deaths occurring between 1 January and 31 October 2021" contains deaths by age group and vaccination status up to 31 October, by month, for the population in the Public Health Data Asset. This covers approximately 79% of the population aged 10+ in England. The use of the Public Health Data Asset to get the deaths and living population by vaccination status results in a more accurate mortality rate as it is not necessary to estimate the number of unvaccinated people from a total population estimate. Future updates will cover further dates.
UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) publish data that could help answer your enquiry. They publish a weekly surveillance report which looks at the impact on hospitalisations, infection, vaccine effectiveness and COVID-19 mortality. They can be contacted on InformationRights@UKHSA.gov.uk
The UKHSA weekly surveillance report includes numbers of COVID-19 deaths within 28 and 60 days of positive specimen or with COVID-19 reported on death certificate for 4-week periods, by vaccination status and age group, where vaccination status is defined on the date of infection. The report also includes mortality rates by vaccination status, where NIMS is used for the denominator.