You asked
How many deaths recorded in England in quarters one and two of 2020 were attributed to respiratory diseases?
Of these, how many were attributed to pneumonia, and of those, to Covid-19?
We said
Thank you for your request.
Our mortality data comes from the information collected at death registration. All of the conditions mentioned on the death certificate are coded using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10). From all of these causes an underlying cause of death is selected using ICD-10 coding rules. The underlying cause of death is defined by WHO as:
a) the disease or injury that initiated the train of events directly leading to death, or
b) the circumstances of the accident or violence that produced the fatal injury
Please see the answers to your questions below:
How many deaths recorded in England in quarters one and two of 2020 were attributed to respiratory diseases?
Please see the following dataset: Deaths registered weekly in England and Wales. This provides provisional figures for deaths by all respiratory diseases and the coronavirus (COVID-19) for 2020 so far.
How many were attributed to pneumonia?
In this publication, pneumonia deaths are included in respiratory deaths overall (ICD Code J00 - J99). Unfortunately, we would be unable to provide a further breakdown of these figures. In order to fulfil this request, we would need use a high level of statistical skill and judgement in order to create a bespoke analysis. Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Public Authorities are not obligated to create information in order to respond to requests. We therefore consider this to be information not held. However, the information you have requested will be published as part of our Deaths Registered in England and Wales Series 2020, which will be published on our website when the data is finalised in 2021.
How many were attributed to COVID-19?
COVID-19 deaths are reported weekly in the following bulletin: Deaths registered weekly in England and Wales. The data you are interested in can be found on the 'UK - Covid-19 - Weekly reg' tab.
We have also been producing Deaths involving COVID-19, England and Wales in the response to COVID-19, which may be of interest. This publication provides a greater insight into the leading underlying causes of death groups for deaths occurring in England and Wales between March and June 2020. Figures for both 'Influenza and Pneumonia' (J09 – J18) and 'Coronavirus' (U07.1-U07.2) during this period can be found on table 1.