Deaths within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test in the UK from COVID-19 only

You asked

Could you please tell me how many of the people who have died within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test in the UK had COVID-19 listed as the SOLE cause of death?

We said

Thank you for your enquiry.

We are responsible for the provision of mortality statistics for England and Wales. National Records Scotland (NRS) and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) are responsible for statistics pertaining to Scotland and Northern Ireland. Therefore, we do not hold the requested data for the whole of the UK. Should you wish to obtain this data from NRS and NISRA, they can be contacted at foi@nrscotland.gov.uk and info@nisra.gov.uk respectively.

Our COVID-19 mortality data and Public Health England (PHE)'s data are produced in different ways and have different purposes:

• The daily COVID deaths counts reported on the government's COVID-19 dashboard (produced by PHE) shows deaths within 28 days of a first positive laboratory-confirmed test.

• ONS weekly death registrations data for England and Wales, relate to the week that ended 11 days prior and are based on the cause of death reported on the death certificate, thereby not restricted to only deaths that showed a positive test.

More information can be found in a  blog by Professor John Newton of Public Health England about the complexities of counting COVID-19 deaths and the different methods used.

Therefore, we do not hold data showing deaths within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 test, as the date on which the deceased has tested positive is not supplied on the death certificate.

This is the data produced by PHE, and your query would be better placed with their organisation. They can be contacted via email at wn_coronavirus@phe.gov.uk.

Our COVID-19 mortality data

Our mortality data is derived from death certificates. The doctor or coroner certifying a death can record more than one health condition or event on the form. The medical certificate of cause of death has two parts, Part 1 contains the sequence of health conditions or events leading directly to death, while Part 2 can contain other health conditions that contributed to the death but were not part of the direct sequence. For statistical purposes one of the health conditions on the certificate is chosen as the 'underlying cause of death'. The underlying cause of death is defined as the health condition or event that started the train of events leading to death and is worked out according to rules from the World Health Organisation (WHO). COVID-19 is the underlying cause of death in around 92% of deaths where it was mentioned on the death certificate.

If someone dies in circumstances involving an accident, violence or suspicious circumstances, the case is referred to a coroner for investigation. A post-mortem examination is carried out and usually an inquest is held. The Coroner's Court hears all the evidence and follows legal rules of evidence when deciding the causes of death. It is extremely unlikely that a coroner would find that someone was involved in a traffic accident, or was the victim of violence, because of having COVID-19 or a positive COVID-19 test -- so they would not mention COVID-19 on the death certificate. This applies to any death caused by an accident, violence, poisoning, or other external causes.  Even if in an unusual case a death certificate mentioned both COVID-19 and a traffic accident (or other external causes), the World Health Organisation (WHO) rules for coding deaths mean that the traffic accident would be identified as the underlying cause of death in our data.

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.

In Figure 2 of the Deaths Registered weekly in England and Wales publication, using the download the data link you can see weekly figures of deaths involving COVID-19 and deaths due to COVID-19.  This information is updated every Tuesday.

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.

The latest COVID-19 publications can be found within the COVID-19 Insight page, which include deaths, hospitals, infections and vaccinations.

You may also find the following previously answered FOI useful: Deaths caused by COVID-19 only from January 2020 to May 2021

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