You asked

I would like to make a freedom of information request relating to the most up to date number of cases and deaths together with their locations in the County of Durham.

County Durham has a population of 526,000 and is geographically one of the largest counties in England. The deaths per 1,000 appear to be disproportionately high at 1.7 deaths per 1000 based on the figures taken on 21st. In comparison Scotland's was 1.5 and Bradford (an area with a similar population count).

I would like confirmation of the most up to date number of deaths per 1000 for England and the number of deaths per 1000 for County Durham relating to Covid-19. One set of figures for hospitals and another which includes home, hospital, hospice, care homes and prison deaths please.

Would it please be possible to publicise number of cases and deaths for each area of Durham County on a daily basis, including those whose deaths occur in our three prisons, care homes, hostels, hospitals and hospices?

Currently cases and deaths across the County is presented as one figure, whereas other counties have the figures broken down into areas. Durham County has no main daily media outlet and the council do not provide information on their website, neither do the hospitals. They refer enquiries to PHE.

We said

Thank you for your request.

We are responsible for mortality statistics for England and Wales. We are unable to provide the amount of cases or infections for County Durham, as this data is not available to us and it is managed by NHS Digital and Public Health England.

However, I am able to provide some elements of your enquiry.

Death registrations and occurrences by local authority and health board are published on a weekly basis, and this provides provisional counts of the number of deaths registered in England and Wales, including deaths involving the coronavirus (COVID-19), by local authority, health board and place of death in the latest weeks for which data are available. These figures are based on deaths by area of usual residence.

We separate out the data for Care homes, hospices and hospitals in this dataset, so the 'Other Communal Establishment' category would include other managed accommodation, such as hostels, prisons, young offenders institutions for example

Our recently published Deaths involving COVID-19 by local area and deprivation provides age standardised mortality rates by local authority area from 1st March 2020 until 17th April 2020.

Age-standardised mortality rates are presented per 100,000 people and standardised to the 2013 European Standard Population. Age-standardised mortality rates allow for differences in the age structure of populations and therefore allow valid comparisons to be made between geographical areas, the sexes, and over time.

The difference between the two totals of COVID-19 deaths for the same area is due to the time that these two different releases have been compiled and delays in the registration of the death. Our bulletin Impact of Registration Delays on mortality statistics will explain in more detail.

If you would like any further information or advice, please do not hesitate to contact health.data@ons.gov.uk, and we will endeavour to help.