Coronavirus: Death

(asked on 12th November 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of deaths taking place within 28 days of a positive covid test in each of the last six months had an unrelated primary cause of death.


Answered by
Helen Whately Portrait
Helen Whately
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This question was answered on 8th January 2021

Public Health England (PHE) COVID-19 death data series counts deaths in people with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 and is not designed to provide definitive information on the causal role of COVID-19 in relation to individual deaths. A PHE analysis from 3 August found that 95% of deaths that occurred within 28 days of the first positive test had a mention of COVID-19 on the death certificate, further information is included in the PHE Technical Summary of 12 August 2020 which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/phe-data-series-on-deaths-in-people-with-covid-19-technical-summary

PHE does not hold data for what proportion of deaths within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 test in each of the last six months resulted from an infection acquired in a hospital or social care setting.

Reticulating Splines