Coronavirus: Death

(asked on 21st April 2020) - View Source

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many deaths attributed to COVID-19 have been recorded in (1) care homes, (2) hospitals, (3) individuals' homes, and (4) other locations.


Answered by
Lord True Portrait
Lord True
Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
This question was answered on 4th May 2020

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

Dear Lord Pearson,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am replying to your Parliamentary Question asking how many deaths attributed to COVID-19 have been recorded in (1) care homes, (2) hospitals, (3) individuals' homes, and (4) other locations (HL3277).

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) produces a weekly report on provisional deaths registered in England and Wales[1], including deaths involving COVID-19. The week runs from Saturday to Friday, and data has therefore been provided for all deaths attributed to COVID-19 up to the most recent week available, ending 17 April. ONS mortality statistics are compiled from information supplied when deaths are certified and registered as part of civil registration.

Table 1 below shows the number of deaths that occurred where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate up to and including 17 April 2020. We have included these figures as they are presented in our weekly report.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond

Table 1: Provisional figures on total death registrations where coronavirus (COVID-19) was mentioned on the death certificate in England and Wales up to 17 April 2020 by place of occurrence[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]

Total deaths (COVID-19)

Care Home

3,096

Hospital (acute or community, not psychiatric)

14,796

Home

883

Other

337

Total

19,112

Source: ONS

[1]https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsregisteredweeklyinenglandandwalesprovisional/latest

[2]Coding of deaths by cause for the latest week is not yet complete and counts could be subject of change.

[3]For deaths registered from 1st January 2020, cause of death is coded to the ICD-10 classification using MUSE 5.5 software. Previous years were coded to IRIS 4.2.3, further information about the change in software is available.

[4]These figures represent death registrations, there can be a delay between the date a death occurred and the date a death was registered. More information can be found in our impact of registration delays release.

[5]An 'underlying cause of death' refers to the main cause of death, whereas a cause being 'mentioned on the death certificate' means that it might be the main reason or a contributory reason to the cause of death

[6]Deaths at home are those at the usual residence of the deceased (according to the informant)‚ where this is not a communal establishment.

[7]Care homes includes homes for the chronic sick; nursing homes; homes for people with mental health problems and non-NHS multi-function sites.

[8]Other includes:

Hospices: including Sue Ryder Homes; Marie Curie Centres; oncology centres; voluntary hospice units; and palliative care centres.

Other Communal Establishments: including schools for people with learning disabilities; holiday homes and hotels; common lodging houses; aged persons’ accommodation; assessment centres; schools; convents and monasteries; nurses’ homes;

Elsewhere: including all places not covered above such as deaths on a motorway; at the beach; climbing a mountain; walking down the street; at the cinema; at a football match; while out shopping; or in someone else's home.

This category also includes people who are pronounced dead on arrival at hospital.

[9]These figures are calculated using the most up-to-date data we have available to get the most accurate estimates.

[10]Non-residents are included in the England and Wales total but not England and Wales separately. For this reason, counts for "England" and "Wales" may not sum to "England and Wales".

Reticulating Splines