Deaths due to COVID-19 in Doncaster

You asked

1. Please could you give me the number of deaths in Doncaster who died 'with' COVID-19, that tested positive within 28 days of dying. Covering the period of March 2020 - present day. Could you also provide me with the average age of these deaths?

2. The number of deaths in Doncaster whereby COVID-19 is the sole cause of death listed, there were no other pre-existing, underlying or comorbidities noted on the death certificate. Covering the period of March 2020 - present day. Could you also provide me with the average age of these deaths?

We said

Thank you for your enquiry.

The following information is the analysis that we hold related to COVID-19 deaths in Doncaster from March 2020 to the present day. These figures differ slightly from those that have been requested, as our mortality statistics are derived from death certificates. Death certificates do not state the date on which a person has tested positive for COVID-19. Our data therefore differs from that of Public Health England (PHE), who record deaths within a certain number of days of testing positive. More information on this can be found at the bottom of our response.

COVID deaths in Doncaster

Death registrations and occurrences by local authority and health board provides weekly all cause and COVID-19 deaths by local authority.

Average age of COVID Deaths in Doncaster

Unfortunately, we do not hold analysis showing the average age of COVID-19 deaths in Doncaster specifically. In order to fulfil this request, we would need to create bespoke analysis. 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.

We may be able to create a custom output. Information on average age by specified geography along with other special extracts and tabulations of mortality data for England and Wales are available to order (subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources and agreements of costs, where appropriate).

Such enquiries would fall outside of the Freedom of Information regime and should be made to: Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.

COVID deaths by pre-existing condition in Doncaster

Unfortunately, we do not hold analysis showing COVID-19 deaths involving no pre-existing conditions in Doncaster. In order to fulfil this request, we would need to create bespoke analysis. 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.

Differences between ONS and PHE COVID-19 mortality data

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 details are printed out as the official 'death certificate' for the next of kin. 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.

ONS and PHE 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. See 'How does ONS count deaths from COVID-19?'

In August 2020, PHE changed the definition they used to calculate deaths of people in England who died at any point following a positive test, regardless of cause of death. The new definition moved from those who died within 60 days of a positive test to reporting deaths with a cut-off of 28 days after a positive test and brought England in line with devolved nations reporting. The recalculation by PHE meant they removed 5,000 deaths, as these tested positive after the new 28 day cut off. As ONS reports COVID deaths based on information from the death certificate and we do not report deaths with only a positive confirmed test, the change in definition by PHE did not impact our recording of COVID-19 deaths.

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.