FOI Ref: FOI/2021/3325
You asked
Please supply how many people died of COVID-19 as the primary cause of death between 01 January 2020 and 01 October 2021 in the Swansea Health Board area.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
ONS publish deaths 'due to' COVID (where it was recorded as the underlying/primary cause of death) and deaths 'involving' COVID (where it was mentioned anywhere on the death certificate).
Annual numbers of death registrations due to COVID-19, for Swansea Health Board for 2020, are available here: Deaths due to COVID-19, registered in England and Wales: 2020. You can find this information in Table 7, Row 388.
Unfortunately, we do not hold analysis of deaths due to COVID-19 for Swansea Health Board for the period 01 January 2021 to 01 October 2021, however we might be able to create a custom output for you. 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.
Although the following publications do not completely meet your requirements, they might also be of interest to you:
Numbers of weekly deaths involving COVID-19, for Swansea Health Board, 2020 to 2021 (up to Week 51, the latest available) are available in the Death registrations and occurrences by local authority and health board publication. These figures are based on any mention of COVID-19 on the death certificate; the publication does not show figures due to COVID-19.
We also published monthly deaths due to COVID-19 for March 2020 (the point at which the first COVID-19 death was registered) to April 2021, in Tables 1, 2 and 3 of the Deaths due to COVID-19 by local area and deprivation publication. This publication was discontinued when the number of COVID-19 related deaths began to decrease through Spring/Summer 2021 because data at such a granular level became potentially disclosive. Section 39 of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 (SRSA) renders it an offence to disclose information held for statistical purposes if there is potential to identify an individual or a body corporate. More information can be found in our disclosure control policy.
If you wish to discuss further, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk.