FOI Ref: FOI/2021/3149
You asked
Please supply which test/s was used to determine Covid-19 deaths/cases, from the out break to present day (27 October 2021).
We said
Thank you for your request.
COVID-19 cases
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.
We take nose and throat swabs to test for the presence of SARS-CoV-02, the virus that causes coronavirus (COVID-19). The nose and throat swabs are sent to the Lighthouse laboratory at Glasgow. Here, they are tested for SARS-CoV-2 using a real time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction test (RT-PCR). This is an accredited test that is part of the national testing programme.
You can find more information about testing in the COVID-19 Infection Survey in our methods article and the protocol. For more information on the government testing programme, you can read the NHS Test and Trace methodology article.
Further information and an overview of data about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic from the Office for National Statistic (ONS) and other sources can be found in our Coronavirus (COVID-19) latest insights tool.
COVID-19 deaths
We do not hold information on what test is used to confirm the COVID-19 death on the death certificate, we merely code COVID-19 deaths using the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) as definite COVID-19 (confirmed by test) has the code U07.1 and suspected COVID-19 has the code U07.2. There has been no change to our reporting of COVID-19 deaths since the beginning of the Pandemic. NHS Digital may be better placed to answer your enquiry regarding the type of test used to confirm COVID-19. They can be contacted via email at enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk.
In case it is of interest, 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.
When a person dies, in most cases a doctor writes a medical certificate of cause of death (MCCD) which is then recorded in the death registration (at a local authority registration office). The details are printed out as the official 'death certificate' for the next of kin. The same information is sent electronically from the registration office to ONS for us to produce statistics about causes of death. For some deaths, such as when the death was due to an accident or violence, there is a coroner's inquest to establish the facts and the coroner then decides the cause of death and sends their findings to the local registrar.
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 Organization (WHO).
For further information about your request, please contact Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.