FOI Ref: FOI/2021/3192
You asked
Please provide the following;
1) Does ONS have plans to shift the definition of 'COVID unvaccinated' to include those who have not received a COVID booster jab?
2) If ONS have plans to shift the definition of 'unvaccinated' to include those who have not received a booster jab, will ONS provide a full break out of death & infection data based on the number of COVID vaccines received (0, 1, 2, 3, 4 +)?
3) Do ONS have plans to respond to future FOI requests asking for death / infection metrics by vaccination status and number of, by stating 'ONS do not possess this data', given that ONS have received at least one advanced notification of this need (via this very FOI) and currently possess this data*, thus currently have the mechanisms in place to continue collecting based on vaccines received (0, 1, 2, 3, 4 +)? *https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/articles/deathsinvolvingcovid19byvaccinationstatusengland/deathsoccurringbetween2januaryand2july2021
4) Will the recipient of this FOI ensure that if there are plans of a shift in the definition of 'COVID unvaccinated', that this FOI will be put forward to ONS decision-makers before this decision is put in place to aid in ensuring informed medical descisions of public and health professional, alike, is made possible?
We said
Thank you for your request.
COVID-19 vaccination status is determined on the date of death occurrence if a death has occurred, and on the last day of each week if not.
Possible values are:
- unvaccinated
- vaccinated with the first dose only, date of death/last day of week is within 21 days of vaccination
- vaccinated with the first dose only, date of death/last day of week is 21 days or more after vaccination
- vaccinated with both the first and second dose, date of death/last day of week is date of second vaccination or later\ For further information on our methodology and guidance in regards to counting deaths by vaccination status please see our Quality and Methodology publication Weekly COVID-19 age-standardised mortality rates by vaccination status, England: methodology
The definition of unvaccinated would remain the same in future, however we may look to include an additional vaccination status category for people who have received both doses and a booster jab for future releases of this publication.
ONS constantly reassess our publications and the public response to them. We have updated your quoted publication to include further data:
Deaths involving COVID-19 by vaccination status, England - Office for National Statistics to include data until 24September. We will publish up to 5 November 2021 in December.
We are currently reassessing this publication and may include the booster jab in future publications.
For further information, please see the following link to our ONS Blog regarding the ONS data on mortality and vaccination status: Coronavirus Deaths: Understanding ONS data on mortality and vaccination status.
The COVID-19 Infection Survey is a household survey that estimates the number of people testing positive for infection and for antibodies in the UK. Our statistics refer to the number of current COVID-19 infections within the population living in private residential households. We exclude those in hospitals, care homes and/or other communal establishments. In communal establishments, rates of COVID-19 infection are likely to be different.
In the dataset accompanying our latest antibodies bulletin , you can find the modelled percentage of the adult population vaccinated for COVID-19 on **tabs 1e, 2d, 3d, and 4d** for England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland respectively. At present, the data are categorised as percentages of people who have received one or more doses and those who have received 2 or more doses. We do not currently distinguish those who have had a booster jab from those who have had two doses. In COVID-19 Infection Survey analysis, the category "unvaccinated" refers to those who have not received a single vaccination dose. Should any of this change, it will be accompanied by a full explanation and signposting in the bulletin above. Official government data on vaccinations is available from the UKHSA (UK Health Security Agency, previously Public Health England) on the gov.uk coronavirus dashboard.
The information you have referred to regarding infections by vaccination status is available from the UKHSA (UK Health Security Agency, previously Public Health England) COVID-19 surveillance reports. The relevant figure is on page 29. Please pay attention to the note accompanying the figure. In the context of very high vaccine coverage in the population, even with a highly effective vaccine, it is expected that a large proportion of cases, hospitalisations and deaths would occur in vaccinated individuals, simply because a larger proportion of the population are vaccinated than unvaccinated and no vaccine is 100% effective. For more information, you can contact UKHSA via email at informationrights@ukhsa.gov.uk.
You may also be interested in the Office for National Statistics COVID-19 infection survey technical article on positivity after vaccination and accompanying dataset, which includes the number of people who test positive after one and two dose vaccination from 1 December 2020 to 31 May 2021. Alongside this, you may also be interested in our technical article on the impact of vaccination on testing positive and accompanying dataset, which includes the risk ratios of testing positive by vaccine exposure from 1 December 2020 to 14 August 2021.
All feedback from FOIs and other sources, including this one, will be escalated through the appropriate channels.
Further information and an overview of data about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and other sources can be found in our Coronavirus (COVID-19) latest insights tool.