Deaths where COVID-19 was the primary cause in 2020

You asked

​​How many deaths have there been where the primary cause of death was COVID-19 from the beginning of this year up to the 15th of December.

We said

Thank you for your request.

The doctor or coroner certifying a death can record more than one health condition or event on the form. The medical certificate of cause of death has two parts, Part 1 contains the sequence of health conditions or events leading directly to death, while Part 2 can contain other health conditions that contributed to the death but were not part of the direct sequence. For statistical purposes one of the health conditions on the certificate is chosen as the 'underlying cause of death'. The underlying cause of death is defined as the health condition or event that started the train of events leading to death and is worked out according to rules from the World Health Organisation (WHO). COVID-19 is the underlying cause of death in around 92% of deaths where it was mentioned on the death certificate.

You can read in detail about the coding of causes of death and identifying the underlying cause in the ONS User guide to mortality statistics and the WHO International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) instruction manual.

We use the term "due to COVID-19" when referring only to deaths where that illness was recorded as the underlying cause of death. We use the term "involving COVID-19" when referring to deaths that had that illness mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, whether as an underlying cause or not.

The downloadable dataset beneath Figure 2 in the following publication provides weekly deaths 'due to COVID-19': Deaths registered weekly in England and Wales, provisional. The following table is taken from this publication and shows deaths both 'due to' and 'involving' COVID-19 from Week 1 to Week 50 (18 December). This publication is updated every Tuesday.

For further information, please contact Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.