Deaths from COVID-19 alone in the UK and deaths 14 days after receipt of the COVID-19 vaccine

You asked

I would like to request the following information.

From Jan 1st 2020 to 16th May 2021, how many people in the United Kingdom have died from only COVID-19 with no underlying health conditions, where only Covid-19 was the actual cause of death?

How many people have died within 14 days of receiving either the first or second COVID-19 vaccine dose?

We said

Thank you for your enquiry.

Scottish and Northern Irish mortality data

We are responsible for the provision of mortality statistics for England and Wales. National Records Scotland (NRS) and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) are responsible for statistics pertaining to Scotland and Northern Ireland. Therefore, we do not hold the requested data for the whole of the UK. Should you wish to obtain this data from NRS and NISRA, they can be contacted at foi@nrscotland.gov.uk and info@nisra.gov.uk respectively.

COVID-19 deaths with no pre-existing conditions in England and Wales

We have published Pre-existing conditions of people who died due to COVID-19, England and Wales - Office for National Statistics which provides deaths from January 2020 to December 2020 by two age groups in the dataset in table 2.

Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) data for 2021 data is available in table 2 of the publication.

COVID-19 as the primary cause of death in England and Wales

In case this information is of interest, Figure 2 of our Deaths registered weekly bulletin shows the number of deaths due to COVID-19 and the number of deaths involving COVID-19 with "due to" referring only to deaths where COVID-19 was recorded as the underlying cause of death and "involving" referring to deaths that had COVID-19 mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, whether as an underlying cause or not.

Please see the 'download data' option at the bottom of Figure 2.

Here are the summed totals for COVID-19 from 3 January 2020 to week ending 28 May 2021. This publication is updated every Tuesday.

•        Deaths involving COVID-19 (underlying or contributory cause): 138,367

•        Deaths due to COVID-19 (underlying cause): 123,717

COVID-19 vaccination deaths in England and Wales

Deaths after receipt of COVID-19 vaccine

You can find the number of deaths involving COVID-19 (not restricted to first or second vaccination) in table 12 of our Monthly Mortality Analysis dataset, these include figures for deaths involving adverse reactions to the COVID-19 vaccination. There are currently 2 deaths registered with the aligning ICD codes for this. However, should this change, they will be updated in this table. This publication is due to be updated in June 2021.

Deaths within a period of time after vaccination

This information requires complex analysis linking vaccination records to death registrations. We are working on analysis on all aspects of the relationship between COVID-19 vaccination and mortality, which will be published in June. Once we have finalised these plans a publication date will be announced on our Release Calendar.

As such, this information 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. Furthermore, 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.

You can find figures published by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) here.