FOI Reference: FOI/2022/3506
You asked
- How many people have died having tested positive for the Omicron variant?
- How many of those that died having tested positive for the Omicron variant but death was due to another condition e.g. heart attack, stroke, cancer, dementia, old-age etc.?
- How many people have been admitted to hospital are in ICU in the week ending 7th Jan 2022?
- Of those in ICU as of 7th Jan 2022 how many have tested positive for Covid?
- Of those in ICU as of 7th Jan 2022 how many have tested positive for Covid but are in ICU for a different reason e.g. heart attack, cancer, stroke, aneurysms etc.?
- How many people as of 7th Jan 2022 that are in ICU are unvaccinated for Covid?
- How many of those unvaccinated people are in ICU to receive treatment for a different reason? i.e. The primary reason for being in ICU is not due to COVID
- How many people as of 7th Jan 2022 that are in ICU are vaccinated for Covid?
- How many of those vaccinated people are in ICU to receive treatment for a different reason i.e. The primary reason for being in ICU is not due to COVID?
We said
Thank you for your request.
Deaths involving the Omicron COVID-19 variant
The ICD-10 code for COVID-19 deaths is U07.1 for COVID-19 and U07.2 for suspected COVID-19. There is no difference in the ICD-10 code used to differentiate between specific COVID-19 variants, therefore, this information would need to be created using the complex data linkage of ONS mortality data to NHS Test and Trace. We therefore do not hold this information.
In case it is of interest, we are currently investigating data linkage to produce a study looking at COVID-19 deaths in both the Omicron and Delta variants. We currently do not have a publication date, but this will be announced on our Release Calendar in due course.
We have the following analysis, which shows deaths due to COVID-19 by pre-existing condition: Pre-existing conditions of people who died due COVID-19. However, please note, this does not include information by COVID-19 variant. We define a pre-existing condition here as the last health condition mentioned on the first part of the death certificate (the direct sequence of events leading to death) when it is recorded on a lower line to, and therefore clearly preceding, the coronavirus (COVID-19); and all mentions in the second part, which are independent contributory factors in the death. Mentions of fatigue and 'old age' (with ICD-10 codes R53, R54) were excluded as these are generally not valid medical conditions for death certification on their own.
This is published quarterly as part of our Monthly Mortality Analysis.
ICU Hospitalisations by cause and vaccination status
We do not hold up-to-date information on hospitalisations.
Our data on hospital episodes is obtained from the Hospital Episode Statistics published by NHS Digital with an approximately 3 month delay. Therefore, we use this data to determine pre-existing conditions and general health of individuals, but not to analyse recent hospitalisations due to COVID-19.
This data is held by NHS Digital, so they may be better placed to answer your query.
They can be contacted via email at enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk and by telephone at 0300 303 5678.
UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) also publish data that could help answer your enquiry. They publish a weekly surveillance report which looks at the impact on hospitalisations, infection, vaccine effectiveness and COVID-19 mortality. They can be contacted on InformationRights@UKHSA.gov.uk
The UKHSA weekly surveillance report includes numbers of COVID-19 hospitalisations and numbers of COVID-19 deaths within 28 and 60 days of positive specimen or with COVID-19 reported on death certificate for 4-week periods, by vaccination status and age group, where vaccination status is defined on the date of infection. The report also includes mortality rates by vaccination status, where NIMS is used for the denominator.
If you would like to discuss your request further, please do not hesitate to contact Health.Data@ons.gov.uk directly.