Deaths that occurred more than 28 days following a positive COVID-19 test

FOI Ref: FOI/2021/2809​

You asked

Please provide deaths due to COVID-19 that have occurred after a longer period than 28 days since a positive diagnosis, rather than within 28 days that is the current reported method?

We said

Thank you for your enquiry.

Ours and Public Health England (PHE)'s COVID-19 deaths 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.

Our data is derived from the death registration process. When a person dies, in most cases a doctor writes a medical certificate of cause of death (MCCD) which is then recorded in the death registration (at a local authority registration office). The same information is sent electronically from the registration office to ONS for us to produce statistics about causes of death.

You can read in detail about the process of counting deaths and producing mortality statistics in the ONS User guide to mortality statistics.

Using the Deaths due to COVID-19, registered in England and Wales 2020 publication, you will find deaths due to and involving COVID-19 in England and Wales.

When we say that a death 'involved' COVID-19, we mean that COVID-19 was mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, possibly along with other health conditions, not necessarily as the underlying cause of death. When we say that a death was 'due to' COVID-19, we mean that COVID-19 was the underlying cause of death, because it was either the only health condition mentioned on the death certificate, or it was the one that started the train of events leading to death.

Using Deaths registered weekly in England and Wales 2021, there are 52,576 registered deaths where COVID-19 was the underlying cause as of 13th August (latest available data).

There are 60,259 deaths where COVID-19 was a contributory cause (involving COVID-19).

This publication is updated every Tuesday.

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