Deaths due to and involving COVID-19 after a positive test

FOI/2021/2867

You asked

​​Please supply the number of people who have died 'of COVID-19' and the number of people who have died 'of any cause within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 test'.

We said

​Thank you for your enquiry.

ONS and Government Dashboard COVID-19 deaths data are produced in different ways and have different purposes:

• The daily COVID-19 deaths counts reported on the government's COVID-19 dashboard provides numbers of COVID-19 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.

• The COVID-19 dashboard daily deaths figures provide a vital early indication of COVID-19 deaths that occur after a positive test.

ONS does not hold data on COVID-19 deaths within 28 days of a first positive laboratory-confirmed test. However, using the recent publication Deaths due to COVID-19, registered in England and Wales  of 607,922 deaths registered in England and Wales in 2020, 81,795 involved COVID-19, of which 73,766 were due to COVID-19.

Deaths involving and due to COVID-19 in 2021 can be found in tab 2 Weekly deaths by cause of the Deaths Registered Weekly publication, which is updated every Tuesday.

Deaths "involving" COVID-19 include all deaths where the cause was mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, as a main cause of death or a contributory cause. Deaths "due to" COVID-10 is a subset of "involving", and only include deaths where the cause was the underlying (main) cause of death.

If you would like any further information, please contact Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.