Deaths from the COVID-19 vaccination to date and from COVID-19 in 2020

FOI/2021/2682

You asked

Please supply the following information:

1. How many people have died within 28 days of having a COVID-19 vaccination since the vaccination rollout start date in England?

2. How many people have died from solely COVID-19 in England in the year 2020, with no underlying health conditions?

We said

Thank you for your enquiry.

Deaths within a period of time of receiving the COVID-19 vaccination

We are currently working on analysis on a number of aspects of the relationship between COVID-19 vaccination and mortality, including:

• Information regarding deaths after 28 days of vaccination, from any cause.
• Information regarding deaths involving or due to COVID-19 after receiving COVID-19 vaccination.

This requires complex analysis linking vaccination records to death registrations. The release of data relating to this ongoing programme of research prior to completion would jeopardise the research project by potentially putting misleading data into the public domain, as the analysis would not be complete nor quality assured. In turn, this would harm our reputation as a producer of reliable, quality-assured, official statistics. If we were to release inaccurate or misleading data regarding this topic, the trust that the government and the public place in our research and statistics could be severely undermined, which would directly jeopardise our functions.

Therefore, the requested information is exempt under Section 22A (b)(i) and (b)(iii), whereby the information requested was obtained in the course of conducting an ongoing programme of research, which we have a view to publish, and release prior to our planned schedule would prejudice the research programme itself and the organisation conducting the research.

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, which requires time and space. If this balance is incorrectly applied, then we run the risk of decisions being based on inaccurate data, which is not in the public interest. This will have an impact on public trust in official statistics in a time when the accuracy of official statistics is more important to the public than ever before. This is particularly important given the public health implications of data surrounding the COVID-19 vaccines.

The provisional release date for these publications is September 2021. Once publication dates are finalised, they will be announced on our Release Calendar.

COVID-19 deaths and pre-existing conditions

We hold analysis showing COVID-19 deaths with no pre-existing conditions in 2020, which is accessible via the following link: Pre-existing conditions of people who died due to COVID-19, England and Wales - Office for National Statistics. Please see table 2 in the publicaton and the following table for this information.

England

You may also be interested in this data for Quarter 1 of 2021, which is also available in table 2 of the publication and in the following table:

Notes:

Notes:

1. Based on non-neonatal deaths due to COVID-19; see the Definitions tab for information on our definition of COVID-19.
2. Numbers exclude one record with ordering anomalies that affect judgement on whether condition pre-existed.
3. Figures for England and Wales (combined) include deaths of non-residents. However, all other geographical breakdowns exclude deaths of non-residents and boundaries are based on the most up-to-date information available at time of publication.
4. Figures are for deaths registered in quarter 1 (January to March) 2021. There is a delay between a death occurring and it being registered; for more information see our impact of registration delays bulletin. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/articles/impactofregistrationdelaysonmortalitystatisticsinenglandandwales/2019

Deaths involving the COVID-19 vaccination

You can find the number of deaths involving COVID-19 (not restricted to first or second vaccination) in table 12 of the following publication: Monthly Mortality Analysis dataset, these include figures for deaths involving adverse reactions to the COVID-19 vaccination. There are currently 4 deaths registered with the aligning ICD-10 codes for this (U12.9). The latest data available is June 2021. However, should this change, they will be updated in this table. This publication is due to be updated in August 2021.

If you have any queries about this information, please contact Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.