Deaths within a certain number of days of the COVID-19 vaccine

You asked

I would like to make a freedom of information request to obtain information relating to the following please:

1. Number of people who have died within 28 days of receiving their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine.
2. Number of people who have died within 28 days of receiving their second dose of a coronavirus vaccine.
3. Number of people who have died with coronavirus within 28 days of receiving their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine.
4. Number of people who have died with coronavirus within 28 days of receiving their second dose of a coronavirus vaccine.
5. Number of people who have been admitted to hospital within 28 days of receiving their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine.
6. Number of people who have been admitted to hospital within 28 days of receiving their second dose of a coronavirus vaccine.
7. Number of people who have been admitted to hospital with coronavirus within 28 days of receiving their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine.
8. Number of people who have been admitted to hospital with coronavirus within 28 days of their second dose of a coronavirus vaccine.

We said

Thank you for your enquiry.

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.

COVID-19 hospitalisations

We are responsible for the production of mortality statistics for England and Wales. Unfortunately, we do not have access to hospital admissions and discharges. Therefore, we do not hold the data you have requested.

This data is held by NHS Digital, so they may be better placed to answer your query. They can be contacted via email at enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk, and by telephone at 0300 303 5678.