Deaths from COVID-19 only, where cases of COVID-19 come from, cancelled NHS operations, and deaths from influenza

You asked

I would like to know how many people died of just Covid-19 since March 2020 until present date (08/03/2021) including by ages?

Please also provide;

The total deaths with a positive test but was not the main factor of death (i.e. covid test) including by age group?

Where the covid cases came from?

How many NHS operations where cancelled since march 2019 and the death rate of citizens who died from everything other than covid directly or those who died from other illness including a positive test?

How many people died from flu by age and underlying health problems in 2018/2019 as well as 2019/2020?

We said

Thank you for your enquiry.

Deaths solely from COVID-19:

Please see the following publication: Pre-existing conditions of people whose death was recorded with an underlying cause of COVID-19, deaths registered in 2020. Row 28 of Table 1a of this dataset provides the number of deaths occurring in England and Wales in 2020 where COVID-19 was listed as the underlying cause, but had no other pre-existing conditions recorded on the death certificate. This data are split by broad age groups between 1-64 and 65+. This publication will be updated quarterly. Unfortunately, we do not hold analysis showing any further age breakdown for deaths from COVID-19 alone.

Deaths where the deceased tested positive, but COVID-19 did not cause the death:

Unfortunately, we do not hold data showing deaths with a positive COVID-19 test where COVID-19 was not the cause of death, as the information we collect is from death certificates. If someone tested positive for COVID-19, but COVID-19 did not cause or contribute to their death, this would not be mentioned on the death certificate.

Deaths from COVID-19 reported by us may include cases where the doctor completing the death certificate diagnosed possible cases of COVID-19, for example, where this was based on relevant symptoms but no test for the virus was conducted. This differs to the data published on the GOV.UK website which are counts of all causes of death where a positive test for COVID-19 has been confirmed.

Deaths with a positive test are coded using the ICD10 code U0.71 and those with suspected COVID-19 but no test has been conducted are coded with ICD10 U0.72.

You may find the following analysis related to this request helpful:

Figure 2 of our Deaths registered weekly bulletin shows the number of deaths due to COVID-19 and the number of deaths involving COVID-19 with "due to" referring only to deaths where COVID-19 was recorded as the underlying cause of death and "involving" referring to deaths that had COVID-19 mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, whether as an underlying cause or not.

Please see the 'download data' option at the bottom of Figure 2.

Here are the summed totals for COVID-19 up to week ending 19 March 2021:

Deaths involving COVID-19 (underlying or contributory cause): 135,560

Deaths due to COVID-19 (underlying cause): 121,665

Origin of COVID-19 cases and cancelled NHS operations:

Unfortunately, we do not hold the origin of COVID-19 cases, as this is not information that is recorded on the death certificate. We also do not hold the number of NHS operations that were cancelled, as we do not have access to NHS theatre records or patient records. NHS Digital may be better placed to answer your enquiry. They can be contacted via email at enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk.

Deaths from influenza:

Unfortunately, we do not hold analysis showing deaths involving influenza by age and underlying health issue for 2018 to 2020. However, we may be able to create a bespoke analysis for you with data up to 2019. Information on influenza deaths for 2018 and 2019, along with other special extracts and tabulations of mortality data for England and Wales are available to order.

Please note, these are subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources and agreements of costs. Data for 2020 will be available to order once the data have been finalised in the summer of 2021. Such enquiries would fall outside of the Freedom of Information regime and can be discussed further via the following email address: Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.

You may also be interested in our published analysis showing deaths from influenza for 2018 to 2019, which are available on our NOMIS webservice.

You may also find the downloadable datafile beneath Figure 2 of our Deaths registered weekly publication of interest. This provides influenza and pneumonia deaths from 2020 to week ending 19 March 2021:

Deaths involving Influenza and pneumonia: (underlying or contributory cause) 154,673

Deaths due to Influenza and pneumonia (underlying cause): 23,998

Our Deaths Registered Series and NOMIS webservice will be updated with 2020 data in the Summer of 2021. Bespoke services will become available for 2020 data after this point.