Comparison of COVID-19 only deaths with influenza only deaths in 2020

Release date:
26 October 2020

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​Please provide information comparing Covid only deaths with influenza only deaths.

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Thank you for your enquiry.

Please see the following publication: Deaths due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) compared with deaths from influenza and pneumonia.

This publication states that of all death occurrences between January and August 2020, there were 48,168 deaths due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) compared with 13,619 deaths due to pneumonia and 394 deaths due to influenza.

Table 5 of the following publication states that there were 4,476 deaths from COVID-19 with no underlying health conditions between January and June 2020: Deaths involving COVID-19 for England and Wales. Please note, we are no longer producing COVID-19 death data broken down by underlying cause, because of the small numbers involved, which would be disclosive.

You may also be interested in our weekly deaths bulletin, which provides a comparison of COVID-19 with both influenza and pneumonia deaths: Deaths registered weekly in England and Wales, provisional.

Please also see the following table taken from this publication, which shows weekly COVID-19 deaths compared to influenza and pneumonia.

Number of deaths registered by week, England and Wales, 28 December 2019 to 2 October 2020
Week numberAll deaths – 2020Influenza
and
pneumonia
mention – 2020		COVID-19
Week 112,2542,5960
Week 214,0582,9940
Week 312,9902,6860
Week 411,8562,4260
Week 511,6122,2670
Week 610,9862,0450
Week 710,9441,9780
Week 810,8411,9960
Week 910,8161,9480
Week 1010,8951,9070
Week 1111,0191,8795
Week 1210,6451,808103
Week 1311,1411,863539
Week 1416,3872,3673,475
Week 1518,5162,0036,213
Week 1622,3511,9318,758
Week 1721,9971,6968,237
Week 1817,9531,4506,035
Week 1912,6579943,930
Week 2014,5731,1943,810
Week 2112,2881,0662,589
Week 229,8249111,822
Week 2310,7091,0361,588
Week 249,9769961,114
Week 259,3391,002783
Week 268,979938606
Week 279,1401,004532
Week 288,690917366
Week 298,823879295
Week 308,891958217
Week 318,946928193
Week 328,9451,013152
Week 339,3921,002139
Week 349,6311,151138
Week 359,0321,040101
Week 367,73987478
Week 379,8111,12599
Week 389,5231,132139
Week 399,6341,172215
Week 409,9451,155321

Notes

  1. Figures include deaths of non-residents.
  2. Based on date a death was registered rather than occurred.
  3. All figures for 2020 are provisional.
  4. The International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Edition (ICD-10) definitions are as follows: coronavirus (COVID-19) (U07.1 and U07.2) and influenza and pneumonia (J09-J18).
  5. A death can be registered with both COVID-19 and influenza and pneumonia mentioned on the death certificate. Because pneumonia may be a consequence of COVID-19, deaths where both were mentioned have been counted only in the COVID-19 category.
  6. Figures for influenza and pneumonia represent where either of these causes have been mentioned anywhere on the death certificate meaning they will not necessarily be the underlying cause of death.
  7. The number of deaths registered in Weeks 19, 20, 22, 23, 36 and 37 were impacted by the Early May, Late May and August Bank Holidays (Friday 8 May 2020 in Week 19, Monday 25 May 2020 in Week 22 and Monday 31 August 2020); the impact of the Early May Bank Holiday was analysed in our Week 20 bulletin.

Download this table Number of deaths registered by week, England and Wales, 28 December 2019 to 2 October 2020

.xls .csv

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