Masks, mortality and hospitalisation statistics involving COVID-19 vaccination

FOI Ref: ​FOI/2021/3101

You asked

Please supply the following information:

1. How many deaths have there been in UK as direct result of the vaccine

2. How many serious side effect cases from all vaccines has there been?

3. Data on vaccinated hospital cases compared to unvaccinated hospitalizations, infections and deaths

4. Data on respiratory disease hospitalisation from mask wearing

5. Data on wearing masks work

We said

Thank you for your enquiry regarding mortality and hospitalisation statistics involving COVID-19 vaccination

We are responsible for the production of Mortality data for England and Wales, this is driven by information collected from the death certificate at death registration. National Records Scotland (NRS) and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) are responsible for statistics pertaining to Scotland and Northern Ireland. They can be contacted at foi@nrscotland.gov.uk and info@nisra.gov.uk respectively.

Deaths attributed to the COVID-19 vaccination

You can find the number of deaths attributed to adverse reactions to the COVID-19 vaccination in table 12 of our Monthly Mortality Analysis dataset.

There are currently 9 deaths registered in England and Wales with the aligning ICD codes for this, 5 of these deaths have ICD10 U12.9 as the underlying cause. Due to the small numbers involved, we are unable to provide any further disaggregation of this data, however, please note that these are deaths across all age groups since the rollout of the vaccination in December 2020 and there are no deaths registered under the age of 35.

The latest data available is September 2021, with October's analysis due to be published on 23November 2021.  

If you have any further enquiries, please contact Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.

UK Health Security Agency also publish a weekly surveillance report which looks at the impact on hospitalisations, infection, vaccine effectiveness and mortality.

Adverse reactions to vaccines

We do not hold data regarding adverse reactions and side effects to vaccines.

The Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Authority publish the Yellow Card Scheme which records self-reported adverse reactions to vaccinations. For further information on the Yellow Card scheme, please contact the on info@mhra.gov.uk.

All cause and COVID-19 Deaths by vaccination status

We hold the following analysis Deaths involving COVID-19 by vaccination status, England which is an analysis of deaths involving COVID-19 and all cause deaths by vaccination status that occurred between 1 January and 24 September 2021 in England.

The data are for England only, as vaccinations data for Wales is not yet available to be linked to the mortality dataset and the PHDA covers England only. Therefore, we consider data for Wales as information not held.

This publication includes weekly age standardised mortality rates for deaths involving COVID-19 by vaccination status and a detailed analysis of deaths involving COVID-19 which occurred in fully vaccinated individuals.

Future releases will be announced on Release Calendar

UK Health Security Agency also publish a weekly surveillance report which looks at the impact on hospitalisations, infection, vaccine effectiveness and mortality.

Hospitalisations by vaccination status

We hold data on hospitalisations involving COVID-19 and vaccination, however, to provide the requested analysis, we would need to create a complex linked bespoke dataset. Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Public Authorities are not obligated to create information to respond to requests. We therefore consider this to be information not held.

NHS Digital may be better placed to answer your enquiry. They can be contacted via email at enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk.

Infection Status

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.

You can find the relative risk of testing positive for COVID-19 by vaccination status in the Alpha-dominant period (tab 1a) and Delta-dominant period (tab 2a) in the dataset accompanying our technical article on the impact of vaccination on testing positive.

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.

Respiratory hospitalisations due to mask wearing

ONS do not hold data on hospitalisation due to respiratory issues.

NHS Digital may be better placed to answer your enquiry. They can be contacted via email at enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) may also be able to assist. They can be contacted via email at enquiries@ukhsa.gov.uk or via FOI email at InformationRights@UKHSA.gov.uk.