Deaths from COVID-19 only and deaths of those who have been fully vaccinated to date

FOI Ref: FOI/2021/3204

You asked

Please supply a breakdown of all deaths from March 2020 to the present day where Covid-19 alone was classed as the cause of death.

Also the information of how many people classed as fully vaccinated with the Covid-19 vaccines who have died since the rollout of the vaccines.

We said

Thank you for your enquiry regarding COVID-19 deaths with no-pre-existing conditions and COVID-19 deaths by vaccination status.

We have been producing the following analysis, which provides a greater insight into the leading pre-existing cause of death groups, for deaths occurring in England and Wales, in 2020 and the first two quarters of 2021 that were due to COVID-19: Pre-existing conditions of people whose death was recorded with an underlying cause of COVID-19. This dataset can be found in section 8 of the Monthly mortality analysis bulletin.

This data shows COVID-19 as the underlying cause of death with no pre-existing conditions listed on the death certificate.

nformation for Quarter 4 of 2021 will be published in February 2022.

As such, information for 2021 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.

COVID-19 and all cause deaths by vaccination status

We hold anlaysis showing deaths involving COVID-19 and all cause deaths by vaccination status that occurred between 1 January 2021 and 24 September 2021 in England: Deaths involving COVID-19 by vaccination status, England.

We have used 21 days after vaccination as this is when the vaccine starts to be effective.

The data are for England only, as vaccinations data for Wales is not yet available to be linked to the mortality dataset and the Public Health Data Asset (PHDA) covers England only. We therefore consider this information for Wales not held.

Table 6 of the same publication shows a comparison of the number of deaths within 21 days of first and second dose.

A further release with data from 25 September 2021 up to at least 5 November 2021 is provisionally scheduled for release on 20 December 2021. The final date of publication will be announced in the Release Calendar.  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.

To note, at present, we do not hold data relating to booster vaccinations, but are looking to include this in future releases.

For further information, please contact Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.