Deaths due to COVID-19 solely and percentage of people with and without underlying health condition

You asked

FOI/2021/2208

1.  I would like to know the exact figure of deaths due to COVID-19 alone from 1st February 2020 until 22 April 2021.

2. The percentage & number of people with 'underlying health conditions' in the overall total

3. the percentage & number of those without 'underlying health conditions'

4. I like a break-down of deaths in each month

We said

Thank you for your enquiry.

COVID-19 by underlying cause.

ONS data as described here are different from the figures on COVID-19 deaths published on the government's COVID-19 dashboard which shows 'deaths within 28 days of a positive test'. You can read a blog by Professor John Newton of Public Health England about the complexities of counting COVID-19 deaths and the different methods used.

You can read in detail about the coding of causes of death and identifying the underlying cause in the ONS User guide to mortality statistics and the WHO International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) instruction manual.

Figure 2 of our Deaths registered weekly bulletin shows the number of deaths due to COVID-19 and the number of deaths involving COVID-19 with "due to" referring only to deaths where COVID-19 was recorded as the underlying cause of death and "involving" referring to deaths that had COVID-19 mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, whether as an underlying cause or not.

Please see the 'download data' option at the bottom of Figure 2.

Here are the summed totals for COVID-19 from January 2020 to week ending 9 April 2021

•       Deaths involving COVID-19 (underlying or contributory cause): 137,058

•       Deaths due to COVID-19 (underlying cause): 122,788

Here is the summed totals from 30 January 2021 until latest available data of 9April 2021. Weekly deaths start on Saturday, so I have taken the nearest available date to 1^st February 2021.

•       Deaths involving COVID-19 (underlying or contributory cause): 34,504

•       Deaths due to COVID-19 (underlying cause): 29,875

COVID-19 deaths with pre-existing conditions

This information can be found in our Pre-existing conditions of people who died due to COVID-19, England and Wales - Office for National Statistics dataset in table 2.

England

Wales

COVID-19 deaths monthly

Deaths involving and due to COVID-19 are recorded monthly as part of our Monthly Mortality Analysis.

For further information please contact Health.Data@ons.gov.uk