FOI Ref: FOI/2021/3200
You asked
If someone dies in a car crash and had tested positive for COVID in the previous 28 days is this then classified as a COVID death? I have seen this is not the case with ONS, but is it the case with the daily PHE figures.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry regarding COVID-19 deaths.
ONS mortality data is derived from information collected from the death certificate.
If someone dies in circumstances involving an accident, violence or suspicious circumstances, the case is referred to a coroner for investigation. A post-mortem examination is carried out and usually an inquest is held. The Coroner's Court hears all the evidence and follows legal rules of evidence when deciding the causes of death. It is extremely unlikely that a coroner would find that someone was involved in a traffic accident, or was the victim of violence, because of having COVID-19 or a positive COVID-19 test -- so they would not mention COVID-19 on the death certificate. This applies to any death caused by an accident, violence, poisoning, or other external causes.
Even if in an unusual case a death certificate mentioned both COVID-19 and a traffic accident (or other external causes), the World Health Organisation (WHO) rules for coding deaths mean that the traffic accident would be identified as the underlying cause of death in our data.
Therefore, ONS Mortality data will not show deaths involving an external cause as a COVD-19 death.
UK Health Security Agency (formerly PHE) have a different methodology and they do publish all deaths, including those involving external causes as a COVID-19 death, if there is a positive COVID test within 28 days of death.
With regards to the COVID-19 "within 28 days of a COVID-19 test" methodology for reporting COVID-19 deaths, ONS and UK Health Security Agency COVID-19 deaths data are produced in different ways and have different purposes:
- The daily COVID deaths counts reported on the government's COVID-19 dashboard (produced by UKHSA) shows deaths within 28 days of a first positive laboratory-confirmed test.
- ONS weekly death registrations data for England and Wales, relate to the week that ended 11 days prior and are based on the cause of death reported on the death certificate, thereby not restricted to only deaths that showed a positive test.
More information can be found in a blog by Professor John Newton of Public Health England about the complexities of counting COVID-19 deaths and the different methods used.
For more information on how the UK Health Security Agency publish COVID-19 mortality statistics please contact InformationRights@UKHSA.gov.uk.