FOI Ref: FOI/2022/3493
You asked
Please supply the number of people hospitalised and the number of people who died from COVID-19 by their vaccination status and age groups between 1 October 2021 and 30 November 2021.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry regarding COVID-19 deaths and hospitalisations by vaccination status.
Deaths by vaccination status
The latest analysis available is accessible via the following link: Deaths by vaccination status, England - Office for National Statistics. This provides deaths by vaccination status data from 1 January 2021 to 31 October 2021.
In table 5 of the corresponding dataset, we provide monthly COVID-19 mortality data by vaccination status.
November and December data will be published in our next release, which is provisionally scheduled for publication in February 2022.
As such, information for November 2021 is considered exempt under Section 22(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, whereby information is exempt from release if there is a view to publish the information in the future. As a central government department and producer of official statistics, we need to have the freedom to be able to determine our own publication timetables. This is to allow us to deal with the necessary preparation, administration and context of publications. It would be unreasonable to consider disclosure when to do so would undermine our functions.
This exemption is subject to a public interest test. We recognise the desirability of information being freely available and this is considered by ONS when publication schedules are set in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics. The need for timely data must be balanced against the practicalities of applying statistical skill and judgement to produce the high quality, assured data needed to inform decision-making. If this balance is incorrectly applied, then we run the risk of decisions being based on inaccurate data which is arguably not in the public interest. This will have an impact on public trust in official statistics in a time when accuracy of official statistics is more important to the public than ever before.
Hospitalisations by vaccination status
We do not hold up-to-date information on hospitalisations. Our data on hospital episodes is obtained from the Hospital Episode Statistics published by NHS Digital with an approximately 3 month delay. Therefore, we use this data to determine pre-existing conditions and general health of individuals, but not to analyse recent hospitalisations due to COVID-19.
UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) publish data that could help answer this part of your enquiry. They publish a weekly surveillance report which looks at the impact on hospitalisations, infection, vaccine effectiveness and COVID-19 mortality. They can be contacted on InformationRights@UKHSA.gov.uk
The UKHSA weekly surveillance report includes numbers of COVID-19 hospitalisations and numbers of COVID-19 deaths within 28 and 60 days of positive specimen or with COVID-19 reported on death certificate for 4 week periods, by vaccination status and age group, where vaccination status is defined on the date of infection. The report also includes mortality rates by vaccination status, where National Immunisation Management System (NIMS) is used for the denominator.