FOI Ref: FOI/2021/2930
You asked
Please provide details of how many people have died within 28 days of having a Covid-19 vaccine.
Please provide these figures by age.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry into deaths involving the COVID-19 vaccination.
Unfortunately, we do not hold the requested analysis of deaths specifically within 28 days of vaccination broken down by age. In order to provide this, we would need to create a dataset using complex linking of mortality records to vaccination records, which would require a high level of skill and judgement to produce. 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.
However, we do hold analysis within or exceeding 21 days, as this is the timeframe whereby the vaccine is deemed most effective. This can be accessed via the following publication: Deaths involving COVID-19 by vaccination status, England: deaths occurring between 2 January and 2 July 2021. This provides analysis of deaths that have occurred between 1 January and 2 July 2021 in England.
This publication includes weekly age standardised mortality rates for deaths involving COVID-19 by vaccination status and a detailed analysis of deaths involving COVID-19 which occurred in fully vaccinated individuals.
| Vaccination status | Deaths involving COVID-19 | Non-COVID-19 deaths | Percent of all deaths |
|---|---|---|---|
| All deaths regardless of vaccination status | 51,281 | 214,701 | 19.3 |
| Unvaccinated | 38,964 | 65,170 | 37.4 |
| Deaths within 21 days of first dose | 4,388 | 14,265 | 23.5 |
| Deaths 21 days or more after first dose | 7,289 | 66,533 | 9.9 |
| Deaths within 21 days of second dose | 182 | 11,470 | 1.6 |
| Deaths 21 days or more after second dose | 458 | 57,263 | 0.8 |
Download this table Table 1 shows count of deaths involving COVID-19 and percentage of all deaths by vaccination status, England, deaths occurring between 2 January and 2 July 2021
.xls .csvWe have also undertaken analysis of the ages of the 256 Breakthrough deaths, in tables 1 and 2 of the publication. "Breakthrough cases" are where infection has occurred in someone who is fully vaccinated. We define a "breakthrough death" as a death involving coronavirus (COVID-19) that occurred in someone who had received both vaccine doses and had a first positive PCR test at least 14 days after the second vaccination dose.
| 0-64 | 14 |
|---|---|
| 65-74 | 25 |
| 75-84 | 90 |
| 85+ | 127 |
Download this table Age group and number of deaths for breakthrough deaths
.xls .csvThis is the latest data we hold; however, we are planning a future publication as we obtain more data. The publication date will be announced on our Release Calendar.
You can also find the number of deaths involving adverse reaction to the COVID-19 vaccination (not restricted to first or second vaccination) in table 12 of our Monthly Mortality Analysis dataset.
There are currently 4 deaths registered with the aligning ICD-10 codes for this (U12.9). The latest data available is August 2021. Data for September will be published mid-October 2021.
Public Health England also publish a weekly surveillance report looks at the impact on hospitalisations, infection, vaccine effectiveness and mortality.
If you have any further enquiries about your request, please contact Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.