FOI Reference: FOI/2021/3017
You asked
Analysis of deaths involving COVID-19 by vaccination status (in England) showed that 38,964 unvaccinated people died between 2nd Jan and 2nd Jul 2021.
How many of the 38,964 had recorded a positive Covid-19 test earlier in the pandemic, and how many were being treated for their first (known) Covid-19 infection?
We said
Thank you for your request.
There were 38,964 deaths of people involving COVID-19 that occurred in unvaccinated people between 2 January and 2 July 2021 and were registered by 28 July as published in our bulletin on Deaths involving COVID-19 by Vaccination status. Of these 38,964 people, we have at least one positive PCR test for 32,910 in our dataset.
Of these 32,910 for whom we have infection data, we identified 32,773 for whom the infection before death was their first infection, and 137 for whom the infection before death was a reinfection. We do not hold infection data for al 38,964
Positive test dates were obtained from NHS Test and Trace data containing positive tests recorded up to 4 July 2021. The absence of a positive test can be either due to a linkage failure (the person was tested but we could not find them in the Test and Trace dataset) or to infection having occurred either not in England or before mass testing was available.
A COVID-19 infection can have multiple positive test results, and a person may be reinfected at a later period. The first positive test result was taken as the start of the first infection, and subsequent infections were determined as starting on the first positive test date that occurred >90 days after the start of the previous infection. The most recent infection is then defined as the start of the last recorded infection. Note: this data is experimental and subject to further quality assurance tests.
If you require any further assistance on this data please feel free email health.data@ons.gov.uk