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.
Week no. | Deaths involving COVID-19 | Deaths due to COVID-19 |
---|---|---|
Week 1 | - | - |
Week 2 | - | - |
Week 3 | - | - |
Week 4 | - | - |
Week 5 | - | - |
Week 6 | - | - |
Week 7 | - | - |
Week 8 | - | - |
Week 9 | - | - |
Week 10 | - | - |
Week 11 | 5 | 5 |
Week 12 | 103 | 95 |
Week 13 | 539 | 519 |
Week 14 | 3,475 | 3,332 |
Week 15 | 6,213 | 5,983 |
Week 16 | 8,758 | 8,435 |
Week 17 | 8,237 | 7,867 |
Week 18 | 6,035 | 5,689 |
Week 19 | 3,930 | 3,664 |
Week 20 | 3,810 | 3,511 |
Week 21 | 2,589 | 2,341 |
Week 22 | 1,822 | 1,628 |
Week 23 | 1,588 | 1,392 |
Week 24 | 1,114 | 948 |
Week 25 | 783 | 629 |
Week 26 | 606 | 498 |
Week 27 | 532 | 408 |
Week 28 | 366 | 291 |
Week 29 | 295 | 228 |
Week 30 | 217 | 161 |
Week 31 | 193 | 148 |
Week 32 | 152 | 115 |
Week 33 | 139 | 104 |
Week 34 | 138 | 98 |
Week 35 | 101 | 76 |
Week 36 | 78 | 69 |
Week 37 | 99 | 78 |
Week 38 | 139 | 118 |
Week 39 | 215 | 178 |
Week 40 | 321 | 279 |
Week 41 | 438 | 385 |
Week 42 | 670 | 590 |
Week 43 | 978 | 874 |
Week 44 | 1,379 | 1,196 |
Week 45 | 1,937 | 1,743 |
Week 46 | 2,466 | 2,170 |
Week 47 | 2,697 | 2,361 |
Week 48 | 3,040 | 2,637 |
Week 49 | 2,835 | 2,469 |
Week 50 | 2,756 | 2,337 |
Download this table
.xls .csvFor further information, please contact Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.