You asked
Please provide updated information on the number of deaths from Covid-19 from 1st March 2020 to 1st January 2021 where the sole cause of death was Covid-19 with no underlying medical health issues.
Please also provide the number of hospital admissions directly related to Covid-19 from 1st March 2020 to 1st January 2021.
We said
Thank you for your request.
We are responsible for the provision of mortality statistics for England and Wales. National Records Scotland (NRS) and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) are responsible for statistics pertaining to Scotland and Northern Ireland. They can be contacted at foi@nrscotland.gov.uk and info@nisra.gov.uk respectively.
The data we hold on COVID-19 hospitalisations in the following bulletin, COVID-19 weekly insights: Latest health indicators in England, are data that we receive from Public Health England (PHE). PHE would therefore be better placed to assist with your query regarding hospital admissions. They can be contacted via email at wn_coronavirus@phe.gov.uk.
We have been producing Deaths involving COVID-19, England and Wales in the response to COVID-19. This publication provides a greater insight into the leading underlying causes of death groups for deaths occurring in England and Wales between March and June 2020.
COVID-19 deaths with no underlying health condition
Figures for COVID-19 deaths with no underlying health conditions are available on table 5,this means where no other underlying condition was listed on the death certificate. Here are the figures below:
- No pre-existing condition: England and Wales - 4476- No pre-existing condition: England - 4169- No pre-existing condition: Wales - 294
COVID-19 deaths with underlying health conditions
Figures for COVID-19 deaths with underlying health conditions are available on table 5, Main pre-existing causes are grouped using the (ONS Leading causes of death in England and Wales list) and International Classification of Disease version 10 blocks of causes.
- With pre-existing condition: England and Wales - 45,859- With pre-existing condition: England - 43,640- With pre-existing condition: Wales - 2156
This publication has now been paused. However, due to the increase in the number of COVID-19, we are planning to publish this analysis again in the future.
As such, the information you have requested from July to 1 January 2020 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 may also be interested in the following data:
Provisional monthly death registration data for England and Wales, broken down by sex, age and country are now available in this monthly publication: Monthly mortality analysis, England and Wales. This publication contains data from July onwards and includes deaths due to COVID-19 and leading causes of death, this can be found in table 11.
If you would like to discuss these statistics further, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk