You asked
With regards to deaths where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate (ICD-10 U07.1 and U07.2):
Please can you advise when the figures quoted on row 19 of the Weekly figures 2020 dataset will be revised to reflect the actual underlying cause of death?
NOTE: "Because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, our regular weekly deaths release now provides a separate breakdown of the numbers of deaths involving COVID-19. That is, where COVID-19 or suspected COVID-19 was mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, including in combination with other health conditions."
Deaths where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate (ICD-10 U07.1 and U07.2)
Please can you share the guidance documentation provided to ONS which instructs the ONS to report on the regular weekly deaths, where COVID-19 or suspected COVID-19 was mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, including in combination with other health conditions, to be reported as one set of data.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
Our Deaths registered weekly publication reports all deaths involving COVID-19. When we say that a death 'involved' COVID-19, we mean that COVID-19 was mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, possibly along with other health conditions, not necessarily as the underlying cause of death. When we say that a death was 'due to' COVID-19, we mean that COVID-19 was the underlying cause of death, because it was either the only health condition mentioned on the death certificate, or it was the one that started the train of events leading to death. COVID-19 is the underlying cause of death in around 92% of deaths where it was mentioned on the death certificate.
The doctor or coroner certifying a death can record more than one health condition or event on the form. The medical certificate of cause of death has two parts, Part 1 contains the sequence of health conditions or events leading directly to death, while Part 2 can contain other health conditions that contributed to the death but were not part of the direct sequence. For statistical purposes one of the health conditions on the certificate is chosen as the 'underlying cause of death'. The underlying cause of death is defined as the health condition or event that started the train of events leading to death and is worked out according to rules from the World Health Organisation (WHO).
You can read in detail about the coding of causes of death and identifying the underlying cause in the ONS User guide to mortality statistics and the WHO International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) instruction manual.
You can see how these different categories are used in the ONS Monthly mortality analysis.
The downloadable datafile beneath Figure 2 of our Deaths registered weekly publication provides COVID-19 deaths both "due to" and "involving" COVID-19.
There are no plans to make any changes to our Deaths Registered Weekly publication.
We have historically published Deaths Registered Weekly with all cause and respiratory deaths since 2010, and Deaths registered weekly from 1993 to 2018 by region, England and Wales with data from 1993 by region.
However, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we felt it was our responsibility to reflect the COVID-19 deaths separately, inline with World Health Organisation Guidance within the Deaths Registered Weekly publication to ensure we published insights and analysis to would continue to inform our users.
You can read in detail about the coding of causes of death and identifying the underlying cause in the ONS User guide to mortality statistics and the WHO International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) instruction manual.
Therefore, we have no documentation instructing ONS to "report the regular weekly deaths, where COVID-19 or suspected COVID-19 was mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, including in combination with other health conditions, to be reported as one set of data" and we consider this to be information not held.