You asked
Please could you tell me how many UK citizens have been tested for the presence of COVID-19 and the results of these tests in both 2019 and 2020?
Please could you tell me how many UK citizens have lost their lives exclusively as a consequence of COVID-19 infection?
Please could you separate the above numbers into the following age groups and again into gender i.e. M/F?
Birth to 15 years of age
16 to 25 years of age
26 to 65 years of age
Over 65 years of age
Please could you confirm that all the above COVID-19 tests were conducted using the same methodology that would definitely not give positive readings from any previous Coronavirus linked infections?
Finally please could you indicate when any previous Coronavirus infections occurred in the UK?
We said
Thank you for your request.
The Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Survey began on 26 April 2020. The study provides estimates of the number of people within the community population that has had coronavirus (COVID-19), in the most recent week and since the study began.
In the dataset accompanying our latest bulletin you can find the following data:
- Our modelled daily positivity rates on tab 1b, for the period 26 April to 1 October 2020
- Our modelled daily positivity rates by age on tab 1g, for the period 21 August to 1 October 2020.
The August edition dataset accompanying our characteristics article on 18 August contains our latest information on sex alone. Data is presented on tab 6 and is for the period 26 April to 26 July. We have not conducted analysis for age by sex.
Please note these are estimates from the COVID-19 Infection survey. NHS test and trace (England) and Coronavirus testing (UK) provide daily statistics on the recorded number of individuals having tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19). The test and trace publication provides statistics weekly, the latest report can be found here.
The survey follows standard sampling methods by which household are randomly selected from a commercially available source such as AddressBase, which is maintained by the Ordnance Survey, or equivalent databases including in the Devolved Administrations. This will ensure that the sample remains representative in terms of the country throughout its duration.
The RT-PCR test for virus is being used as a diagnostic for infection. In individuals who have been infected and recovered, RT-PCR provides no information about prior exposure or immunity. The RT-PCR test uses the N gene, S gene and ORF1ab gene sequences that are specific to SARS-CoV-2 and would not identify as positive for other known coronaviruses (eg those causing the common cold, CoV-HKU1, or HCoV-OC43 or coronaviruses like MERS-CoV).
Normally an infectious virus is only detectable in the upper respiratory tract the day before, to on average, five to six days after symptoms appear, longer if the infection descends to the lung (on average 13 to 14 days after the first appearance of upper respiratory tract infection). Therefore nose and throat swab tests are unlikely to pick up virus from previous infections (i.e., from March to April).
We are responsible for the production of Mortality data for England and Wales, this is driven by information collected from the death certificate at death registration.
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. 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
We are unable to provide you with the age breakdown you have requested, aggregating by smaller age groups will produce small counts in some causes of death. We can provide information for age bands from 0 to 44 years, then five year age bands up to 90 years and over thereafter, this is available in table 6a.
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.
We are no longer publishing monthly COVID deaths with details around the death such as pre-existing conditions or no underlying cause due to the decrease in the number of COVID-19 related deaths. Whilst the number of infections appear to be rising, the number of COVID-19 deaths from July onwards are very small and poses a disclosure risk, making it entirely possible to identify individual records.
We will certainly look to publish this data again should there be a significant rise in deaths, this is required for us to avoid risk of disclosure. We are constantly reassessing this to see how we can continue to publish analysis to inform users.
If you would like to discuss these statistics further, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk.