You asked
FOI/2021/2296
I would like:
Deaths due to COVID-19 with underlying health conditions, and
Deaths due to COVID-19 with no underlying health conditions for the period March 2020 - March 2021.
Then please can I have the same request for deaths due to flu for the same timeframe.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry
COVID-19 deaths
For January to July 2020, this information is available in our Deaths involving COVID-19, England and Wales - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk) publication. Table 6a shows deaths involving COVID and pre-existing conditions for ages 0-44 and then 5-year age band after the age of 45.
Data from July 2020 to April 2021 is available in our Monthly Mortality analysis publication. Here we use the multiple health conditions that can be recorded on a death certificate to identify deaths where there were pre-existing health conditions that contributed to the cause of death. Health conditions are recorded on the death certificate only if the certifying doctor or coroner believed they made some contribution to the death, direct or indirect: the death certificate does not include all health conditions from which the deceased might have suffered if they were not considered relevant. However, the fact that a pre-existing condition was recorded does not suggest that the deceased was likely to have died from that condition in the absence of the coronavirus (COVID-19) infection.
We also have the following publication Pre-existing conditions of people who died due to COVID-19, England and Wales - Office for National Statistics which provides deaths from January 2020 to December 2020 by two age groups in the dataset in table 2. This is the latest data available. We have also published Quarter 1 for 2021 with this dataset.
Within our Deaths Registered Weekly publication, we publish Deaths involving COVID-19 and Deaths due to COVID-19. We use the term due to when COVID-19 is the underlying cause of death and the term involving where it is a contributory cause. This information is updated every Tuesday and can found in Figure 2 of the publication, in "download by data".
Influenza Deaths
For 2020, the information is available in our Weekly Deaths publication. Figure 2 shows Influenza as an underlying and contributory cause. Any further investigation will only be available after the publication of the Deaths Registered Series Deaths registered in England and Wales - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk). This will be published in July 2021 and will finalise the 2020 data including all late registrations that have been referred to Coroners Court.
Information on Influenza deaths for 2021 will only be obtainable through our weekly death's publication.
If you would like to discuss your query further, please feel free to contact health.data@ons.gov.uk.