FOI/2021/2333
You asked
Please provide me with the total number of deaths in England and Wales hospitals where COVID-19 is listed as the sole cause of death. I would like the information covering 1 April 2020 to 1 April 2021 and total number broken down into two age groups: 0-16 and 16 and up.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
Unfortunately, we do not hold analysis showing deaths where COVID-19 is the sole cause of death broken down by place of occurrence. To fulfil this request, we would need to create bespoke analysis. Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Public Authorities are not obligated to create information in order to respond to requests. We therefore consider this to be information not held.
However, the following information may be of use to you:
Deaths involving COVID-19 by place of occurrence can be found in our Death registrations and occurrences by local authority and health board publication. We use the term "due to COVID-19" when referring only to deaths where that illness was recorded as the underlying cause of death. We use the term "involving COVID-19" when referring to deaths that had that illness mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, whether as an underlying cause or not.
ONS have also been producing the following publication: Pre-existing conditions of people whose death was recorded with an underlying cause of COVID-19. This dataset can be found in section 8 of the monthly mortality analysis bulletin. This dataset provides a greater insight into the leading pre-existing cause of death groups, for deaths occurring in England and Wales, in 2020 and the first quarter of 2021 that were due to COVID-19.
Please see 'table 1a, row 28 (2020) and row 29 (2021)' for deaths where COVID-19 was listed as the underlying cause, but had no other pre-existing conditions recorded on the death certificate, England and Wales. Table 1b represents these figures for England and table 1c figures are for Wales.
This publication will be updated quarterly. COVID-19 deaths involving pre-existing conditions is split by broad age groups between 1 to 64 and 65 and over. There was a total of 9400 deaths in England and Wales 2020 and 6483 deaths registered in quarter 1 of 2021 that were due to COVID-19 and were recorded without any pre-existing conditions.
NHS Digital may be also be able to help further with your enquiry. They can be contacted via email at enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk, and by telephone at 0300 303 5678.