You asked
FOI Ref: FOI/2021/2382
Could you provide a breakdown of the number of cases and deaths in the UK, per COVID variant since March 2020 up to today?
Could you also provide information as to what type of test has been used to determine the difference between the variants too?
We said
Thank you for your request.
COVID-19 confirmed cases and variant
The COVID-19 Infection Survey (CIS) is a household survey which refers to the number of current COVID-19 infections within the community population; community in this instance refers to private residential households and it excludes those in hospitals, care homes or other institutional settings.
In the technical dataset accompanying our latest bulletin, you can find the genetic lineages and Ct values of a sample of the positive tests returned by the participants in our study on tab 1a. Full genome sequencing is used to determine the potential variants of the positive tests returned by our participants.
In the same dataset, you can also find the modelled daily positivity rates estimates broken down by variant compatibility for all four UK nations and by region in England on tabs 1c and 1d respectively. You can also find the number of positive COVID-19 tests by genetic lineages seen in samples by week on tab 1e.
You may also be interested in the distribution of cases by variants of concern which is produced by Public Health England (PHE) using data from Test and Trace and not based on the COVID-19 Infection Survey data.
You may also wish to contact PHE with your queries, as they may be able to assist further. They can be contacted via email at wn_coronavirus@phe.gov.uk.
Deaths involving COVID-19 by type of variant
We are responsible for the production of mortality data for England and Wales. For Scotland and Northern Ireland statistics please contact National Records Scotland and NISRA respectively.
Unfortunately, we do not hold the information requested regarding COVID-19 deaths broken down by variant for England and Wales. Our mortality data are derived from the formal process of death registration and, unfortunately, testing information is not listed on a death certificate.
Deaths from COVID-19 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 U071 and those with suspected COVID-19 but no test has been conducted are coded with ICD10 U072.
However, we have published a breakdown of COVID-19 deaths by age group in our weekly deaths bulletin with statistics published up to week ending 28 May 2021. Please download the 'Covid-19 – Weekly registrations' table in the 2020 and 2021 datasets for weekly deaths involving COVID-19 by age group.
We also have total figures for England and Wales from March 2020 to April 2021, split by U071 and U072. This can be found in table 12 of Monthly mortality analysis, England and Wales.
If you would like to discuss these statistics further, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk.
Public Health England (PHE) may also able to assist further with your query. They can be contacted via aforementioned email address.