You asked
With regards to the following FOI response: https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/transparencyandgovernance/freedomofinformationfoi/covid19deathsandpositivetestsfor2019and2020
My major concern is the statistic you provide of the number of citizens who died in England and Wales with no underlying conditions, only a prior to death positive SARS-Cov-2 test indicating COVID-19 mentioned on the death certificate between March and June, 2020, stated by yourselves as 4476.
Could you please confirm whether this number of 4476 includes victims of road traffic accident injuries, serious assaults, suicides, drownings and similar mishaps who happened to have tested COVID-19 positive within 28 days of death?
Please could you clarify how many citizens of England and Wales passed away between March and June, 2020 without a positive Covid-19 result being registered within 28 days of death?
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
We are responsible for the provision of mortality statistics for England and Wales, driven by the information recorded on death certificates. Unfortunately, we do not hold information as to whether the deceased tested negative for COVID-19. We only hold information on whether COVID-19 was the primary cause of death, supplementary cause of death, or mentioned on the death certificate.
Pillar 1 to 4 testing is conducted by Public Health England. Therefore, Public Health England may be better placed to assist with your request. They can be contacted via the following email address: wn_coronavirus@phe.gov.uk.
Please see the Coronavirus (COVID-19) UK Daily update and the Weekly statistics for NHS Test and Trace (England) and coronavirus testing (UK) which may also be of use to you.