FOI Ref: FOI/2022/3491
You asked
Please supply the number of people recorded as having caught COVID-19 in December 2021. Please supply this by vaccination status.
I appreciate that you have been collating statistics and recording people as unvaccinated even if they are within 14/21 days of being vaccinated, why is this?
We said
Thank you for your request.
The COVID-19 Infection Survey (CIS) is a household survey that estimates the number of people testing positive for infection and for antibodies in the UK. Our statistics refer to the number of current COVID-19 infections within the population living in private residential households. We exclude those in hospitals, care homes and/or other communal establishments. In communal establishments, rates of COVID-19 infection are likely to be different.
Please note that the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA, previously Public health England) are responsible for NHS Test and Trace. You can find the official number of people testing positive by date on the Government's Coronavirus (COVID-19) dashboard.
The Office for National Statistics do not hold a breakdown of all the people testing positive by vaccination status for the time period requested (December 2021). This information is available for NHS Test and Trace positives from UKHSA COVID-19 surveillance reports. The relevant figure is on page 39, table 9 (13 January 2022, week 2). Please pay attention to the note accompanying the figures. In the context of very high vaccine coverage in the population, even with a highly effective vaccine, it is expected that a large proportion of cases, hospitalisations and deaths would occur in vaccinated individuals, simply because a larger proportion of the population are vaccinated than unvaccinated and no vaccine is 100% effective. This is especially true because vaccination has been prioritised in individuals who are more susceptible or more at risk of severe disease. Individuals in risk groups may also be more at risk of hospitalisation or death due to non-COVID-19 causes, and thus may be hospitalised or die with COVID-19 rather than because of COVID-19. For more information, you can contact UKHSA via email at informationrights@ukhsa.gov.uk.
You may be interested in our technical article, Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Survey Technical Article: Impact of vaccination on testing positive in the UK: October 2021, which covers the time period 1 December 2020 to 14 August 2021. In the accompanying impact of vaccination on testing positive in the UK dataset, you can find the risk ratios of testing positive for COVID-19 by COVID-19 vaccination status, when the Alpha variant and Delta variant were dominant, on tab 1a and tab 2a respectively.
In our analysis, the vaccination status categories are as follows: those who are unvaccinated; those who had their first dose 1 to 20 days ago; those who had their first dose greater than 21 days ago but haven't had a second dose more than 13 days ago; and those who had their second dose 14 days or more ago. This allows us to compare vaccine effectiveness at different time points since vaccination. Please note we intend to update our analysis on the impact of vaccination on testing positive. Details will be listed on the ONS release calendar when plans are finalised.
Further information and an overview of data about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and other sources can be found in our Coronavirus (COVID-19) latest insights tool.