You asked
How many death certificates had lab-confirmed COVID-19 (ICD-10 code U07.1) mentioned in Part I/underlying cause of death?
How many death certificates had clinically/epidemiologically-diagnosed COVID-19 (ICD-10 code U07.2) mentioned in Part I/underlying cause of death?
How many death certificates had lab-confirmed COVID-19 (ICD-10 code U07.1) mentioned in Part II/other conditions contributing to death?
How many death certificates had clinically/epidemiologically-diagnosed COVID-19 (ICD-10 code U07.2) mentioned in Part II/other conditions contributing to death?
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
We are responsible for 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.
Unfortunately, we would be unable to provide you with the requested breakdown of COVID-19 death data. In order to fulfil this request, we would need use a high level of statistical skill and judgement in order to create a bespoke analysis or table. Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Public Authorities are not obligated to create information in order to respond to requests. We therefore consider this to be information not held.
However, under the Freedom of Information Act, I can supply the following information.
The following publication, Deaths involving COVID-19, England and Wales: deaths occurring in June 2020 bulletin, states that between 1 March and 30 June 2020, there were 218,837 deaths that occurred in England and Wales and that were registered by 4 July 2020. Over a fifth of these deaths (23.0%) involved the coronavirus (COVID-19) (50,335 deaths). The doctor certifying a death can list all causes in the chain of events that led to the death and pre-existing conditions that may have contributed to the death. Using this information, we determine an underlying cause of death. More information on this process can be found in our user guide. In most cases (46,736 deaths, 92.8%) where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, it was found to be the underlying cause of death.
Our definition of COVID-19 includes some cases where the certifying doctor suspected the death involved COVID-19 but was not certain, for example, because no test was done. Of the 46,736 deaths with an underlying cause of COVID-19, 3,763 (8.1%) were classified as "suspected" COVID-19 (U07.2) Including mentions, "suspected" COVID-19 (U07.2) was recorded on 8.4% (4,251 deaths) of all deaths involving COVID-19.
This bulletin will also provide information on underlying causes and characteristics of those dying from COVID-19.
This bulletin will be updated on in September. Further information can be found on our Release Calendar