FOI ref: FOI/2022/4593
You asked
I request the total number of doctors and nurses in England that have died due to COVID-19 during the term 2020 to 2022.
I would also like to request the age group ranges for people that have died due to COVID-19.
I would also like to request the actual number of people that have died without any underlying health conditions and their age ranges please.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
COVID-19 deaths by occupation
We hold the following analysis, which looks at data from 9March 2020 to 28 December 2020: Coronavirus (COVID-19) related deaths by occupation, England and Wales - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk). Please note, this publication has now been discontinued.
Occupations defined using the Standard Occupation Classification (SOC 2010). Descriptions of individual occupations can be found here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/methodology/classificationsandstandards/standardoccupationalclassificationsoc/soc2010/soc2010volume1structureanddescriptionsofunitgroups
Table 4 will show an overview for Health and social care associate professionals, table 6 breaks this down further into the codes below.
The SOC 2010 codes for health care workers are as follows:
- 1181 Health services and public health managers and directors
- 1241 Health care practice managers
- 2211 Medical practitioners
- 2212 Psychologists
- 2213 Pharmacists
- 2214 Ophthalmic opticians
- 2215 Dental practitioners
- 2217 Medical radiographers
- 2218 Podiatrists
- 2219 Health professionals n.e.c.
- 2221 Physiotherapists
- 2222 Occupational therapists
- 2223 Speech and language therapists
- 2229 Therapy professionals n.e.c.
- 2231 Nurses
- 2232 Midwives
- 3213 Paramedics
- 3217 Pharmaceutical technicians
- 3218 Medical and dental technicians
- 3219 Health associate professionals n.e.c.
- 4211 Medical secretaries
- 6141 Nursing auxiliaries and assistants
- 6142 Ambulance staff (excluding paramedics)
- 6143 Dental nurses
- 7114 Pharmacy and other dispensing assistants
- 9271 Hospital porters
We also published as user requested data sets:
- Deaths involving Coronavirus (COVID-19) by occupation (those aged 20 to 64 years), in the first and second waves of the pandemic, England, deaths registered between 9th March 2020 and 7th May 2021
- Deaths involving coronavirus (COVID-19) among health and social care workers (those aged 20 to 64 years), England and Wales, deaths registered, 9 March 2020 to 31 March 2022
Further analysis of deaths due to COVID-19 by occupation can be requested via our bespoke services route. Special extracts and tabulations of data are available to order from the Health Analysis and Pandemic Insight (HAPI) Customer services team. These extracts are subject to disclosure control, legal frameworks, resources and agreement to costs under the ONS Charging policy.
For further information on this service, please contact Health.Data@ons.gov.uk
COVID-19 deaths by age
2020 and 2021 data:
We hold the following analysis, which provides the number of deaths registered in England and Wales due to and involving coronavirus (COVID-19): Deaths due to COVID-19, registered in England and Wales. Breakdowns include age, sex, region, local authority, Middle-layer Super Output Area (MSOA), indices of deprivation and place of death. Includes age-specific and age-standardised mortality rates.
2022:
We publish COVID-19 deaths by 5-year age band weekly in our the following publication: Deaths registered weekly in England and Wales, provisional.
COVID-19 deaths with no pre-existing conditions
Health conditions are recorded on the death certificate only if the certifying doctor or coroner believed they made some contribution to the death, direct or indirect. The death certificate does not include all health conditions from which the deceased might have suffered if they were not considered relevant.
The death certificate (Annex A (PDF, 224KB)) used in England and Wales is compatible with that recommended by WHO. It is set out in two parts. Part I gives the condition or sequence of conditions leading directly to death, while Part II gives details of any associated conditions that contributed to the death but are not part of the causal sequence.
We recommend using our pre-existing conditions methodology to answer this question as it removes any conditions caused by the underlying cause of death.
We define pre-existing conditions as those mentioned in Part 2 of the medical certificate of cause of death. If COVID-19 is mentioned in Part 1 on lines above other conditions also mentioned in Part 1, the last condition mentioned in Part 1 is also considered a pre-existing condition. We don't know exactly how many people who died from COVID-19 had no pre-existing health conditions, only how many did not have a pre-existing condition mentioned on the death certificate. A contributor to the cause of death is expected to have increased the likelihood of death, but this does not mean that the death would have been avoided in its absence.
We would also recommend reading our recent blog on this subject: To say only 17,000 people have died from COVID-19 is highly misleading.
We hold analysis showing deaths due to COVID-19 with no pre-existing conditions by broad age-band in England and Wales in the following publication: Pre-existing conditions of people who died due to COVID-19, England and Wales. This is published quarterly within our Monthly Mortality Analysis publication.
The next release is scheduled for publication on 20 January 2023.
As previously mentioned, if you require further analysis, we can create a bespoke data set from the HALE Customer services team. Please contact Health.Data@ons.gov.uk to discuss your query further.