Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many COVID-19 related deaths in the UK resulted from a secondary bacterial infection leading to sepsis.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have therefore asked the Authority to respond.

Dear Lord Empey,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking how many COVID-19 related deaths in the UK resulted from a secondary bacterial infection leading to sepsis (HL3127).

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is responsible for publishing weekly numbers of deaths registered in England and Wales. The most recent figures published are for deaths registered in 2018[1], however, we do publish provisional weekly deaths registrations which are currently published for deaths registered up to 10 April 2020[2]. National Records Scotland (NRS) and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) are responsible for publishing the number of deaths registered in Scotland and Northern Ireland respectively.

Cause of death is defined using the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th edition (ICD-10). Deaths involving COVID-19 are identified by the ICD-10 codes U07.1 and U07.2 and deaths involving sepsis are identified by the ICD-10 codes A40 and A41. Sepsis is likely to be caused by a bacterial infection, therefore we have assumed that all deaths involving sepsis would involve a bacterial infection and have therefore not searched for this separately.

Table 1 below shows the number of deaths occurring in March 2020 and registered by 10 April 2020 where the death involved both COVID-19 and sepsis, where COVID-19 caused the sepsis. The data covers deaths registered in Great Britain, as data for Northern Ireland is not yet fully coded.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond

Table 1: Number of deaths occurring in March 2020 involving COVID-19 and sepsis, where COVID-19 caused the sepsis, Great Britain[3][4]

Source: Office for National Statistics, National Records Scotland

[1]https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/datasets/deathsregisteredinenglandandwalesseriesdrreferencetables

[2]https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsregisteredweeklyinenglandandwalesprovisional/weekending10april2020

[3]Cause of death was defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes U07.1, U07.2, A40 and A41.

[4]Figures are based on deaths occurring in March 2020, registered up until 10 April 2020