Deaths from COVID-19 only and deaths from COVID-19 with underlying health conditions

FOI Ref: FOI/2021/3186​

You asked

Please supply how many people have died in your hospitals from Covid-19 alone? As in died only due to covid 19.

I can see the numbers you publish on line, but these are deaths within 28 days of a positive covid test. So they could have died of other causes.

I just want to know the exact figure from 1st feb 2020 until 20th December 2020 of people that have died due to covid 19 and nothing else.

Also the percentage and number of people with underlying health conditions in overall total.

The percentage and number of those without underlying health problem?

We said

Thank you for your request.

The mortality data published by ONS are derived from the formal process of death registration. For Scotland and Northern Ireland statistics please contact National Records Scotland and NISRA respectively.

Our mortality data is derived from information collected at the point of death registration. The doctor or coroner certifying a death can record more than one health condition or event on the form. The medical certificate of cause of death has two parts, Part 1 contains the sequence of health conditions or events leading directly to death, while Part 2 can contain other health conditions that contributed to the death but were not part of the direct sequence.

For statistical purposes one of the health conditions on the certificate is chosen as the 'underlying cause of death'. The underlying cause of death is defined as the health condition or event that started the train of events leading to death and is worked out according to rules from the World Health Organisation (WHO). You can read in detail about the coding of causes of death and identifying the underlying cause in the ONS User guide to mortality statistics and the WHO International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) instruction manual.  COVID-19 is only mentioned on the death certificate if the doctor or coroner believes it was part of the reason the person died.

To note, with regards to the COVID-19 "within 28 days of a COVID-19 test" methodology for reporting COVID-19 deaths, ONS and UK Health Security Agency (formerly 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 UKHSA) 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.

COVID-19 deaths U071 and U072:

COVID-19 deaths may include cases where the doctor completing the death certificate diagnosed possible cases of COVID-19, for example, where this was based on relevant symptoms but no test for the virus was conducted. Deaths with a positive test are coded using the ICD10 code U0.71 and those with suspected COVID-19 but no test has been conducted are coded with ICD10 U0.72.

U0.71: Confirmed COVID-19, following a positive test – March 2020 to October 2021

• England: U071, March 2020 to September 2021 – 123,041
• Wales: U071, March 2020 to September 2021 – 7195

U0.72: Suspected COVID-19, but no test conducted – March 2020 to October 2021

• England: U072, March 2020 to September 2021 – 3781
• Wales: U072, March 2020 to September 2021 – 358

Additionally, please see the table below which includes a breakdown of deaths due to and involving COVID-19 by place of occurrence. These figures have been pulled from our Deaths due to COVID-19, registered in England and Wales: 2020 dataset:

Deaths due to COVID-19 with no underlying cause

For mortality figures where COVID-19 was the sole cause of death, please see: Pre-existing conditions of people whose death was recorded with an underlying cause of COVID-19, this dataset can be found in section 7 of the Monthly mortality analysis bulletin. This dataset provides a greater insight into the leading pre-existing cause of death groups, for deaths occurring in England and Wales, in 2020 and the first two quarters of 2021 that were due to COVID-19.

Please see 'table 1a, row 30 (2020) for deaths where COVID-19 was listed as the underlying cause, but had no other pre-existing conditions recorded on the death certificate, England and Wales. Table 1b represents these figures for England and table 1c figures are for Wales.

This publication is updated quarterly. COVID-19 deaths involving pre-existing conditions are split by broad age groups between 1-64 and 65+.

Please see below for death registrations for 2020 that were due to COVID-19 and were recorded without any pre-existing conditions, England and Wales 2020.

Deaths due to COVID-19 with underlying causes

Please see table 2 of the following publication: Pre-existing conditions of people whose death was recorded with an underlying cause of COVID-19. This provides statistics on COVID-19 deaths in England and Wales 2020, which had pre-existing conditions.

If you would like to discuss this enquiry further, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk.