Due to changes in the collection and availability of data on COVID-19 this page will no longer be updated. The webpage will no longer be available as of 11 May 2023. On-going, reliable sources of data for COVID-19 are available via the COVID-19 dashboard, Office for National Statistics, and the UKHSA
This page provides a weekly summary of data on deaths related to COVID-19 published by NHS England and the Office for National Statistics. More frequent reporting on COVID-19 deaths is now available here, alongside data on cases, hospitalisations, and vaccinations.
This update contains data on deaths related to COVID-19 from:
- NHS England COVID-19 Daily Deaths - last updated on 28 June 2022 with data up to and including 27 June 2022.
- ONS weekly deaths by Local Authority - last updated on 16 August 2022 with data up to and including 05 August 2022.
Summary notes about each these sources are provided at the end of this document.
Note on interpreting deaths data: statistics from the available sources differ in definition, timing and completeness. It is important to understand these differences when interpreting the data or comparing between sources.
Weekly Key Points
- An additional 24 deaths in London hospitals of patients who had tested positive for COVID-19 and an additional 5 where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate were announced in the week ending 27 June 2022. This compares with 40 and 3 for the previous week.
- A total of 306 deaths in hospitals of patients who had tested positive for COVID-19 and 27 where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate were announced for England as whole. This compares with 301 and 26 for the previous week.
- The total number of COVID-19 deaths reported in London hospitals of patients who had tested positive for COVID-19 is now 19,102. The total number of deaths in London hospitals where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate is now 1,590.
- This compares to figures of 119,237 and 8,197 for English hospitals as a whole.
- Due to the delay between death occurrence and reporting, the estimated number of deaths to this point will be revised upwards over coming days
- These figures do not include deaths that occurred outside of hospitals. Data from ONS has indicated that the majority (79%) of COVID-19 deaths in London have taken place in hospitals.
Recently announced deaths in Hospitals
21 June 22 June 23 June 24 June 25 June 26 June 27 June London No positive test 0 0 1 4 0 0 0 London Positive test 3 7 2 10 0 0 2 Rest of England No positive test 2 6 4 4 0 0 6 Rest of England Positive test 47 49 41 58 6 0 81 
16 May 23 May 30 May 06 June 13 June 20 June 27 June London No positive test 14 3 4 0 4 3 5 London Positive test 45 34 55 20 62 40 24 Rest of England No positive test 41 58 33 23 47 23 22 Rest of England Positive test 456 375 266 218 254 261 282 Deaths by date of occurrence
21 June 22 June 23 June 24 June 25 June 26 June 27 June London 20,683 20,686 20,690 20,691 20,692 20,692 20,692 Rest of England 106,604 106,635 106,679 106,697 106,713 106,733 106,742 Interpreting the data
The data published by NHS England are incomplete due to:
- delays in the occurrence and subsequent reporting of deaths
- deaths occurring outside of hospitals not being included
The total deaths reported up to a given point are therefore less than the actual number that have occurred by the same point.
Delays in reporting
NHS provide the following guidance regarding the delay between occurrence and reporting of deaths:
Confirmation of COVID-19 diagnosis, death notification and reporting in central figures can take up to several days and the hospitals providing the data are under significant operational pressure. This means that the totals reported at 5pm on each day may not include all deaths that occurred on that day or on recent prior days.
The data published by NHS England for reporting periods from April 1st onward includes both date of occurrence and date of reporting and so it is possible to illustrate the distribution of these reporting delays. This data shows that approximately 10% of COVID-19 deaths occurring in London hospitals are included in the reporting period ending on the same day, and that approximately two-thirds of deaths were reported by two days after the date of occurrence.
Deaths outside of hospitals
The data published by NHS England does not include deaths that occur outside of hospitals, i.e. those in homes, hospices, and care homes.
ONS have published data for deaths by place of occurrence. This shows that, up to 05 August, 79% of deaths in London recorded as involving COVID-19 occurred in hospitals (this compares with 44% for all causes of death). This would suggest that the NHS England data may underestimate overall deaths from COVID-19 by around 20%.
Comparison of data sources
Note on data sources
NHS England provides numbers of patients who have died in hospitals in England and had tested positive for COVID-19, and from 25 April, the number of patients where COVID-19 is mentioned on the death certificate and no positive COVID-19 test result was received. Figures are updated each day at 2pm with deaths reported up to 5pm the previous day. There is a delay between the occurrence of a death to it being captured in the daily reporting. The data can be presented both as reported deaths by day and death occurrences by day. Reported occurrences for recent days should be considered incomplete as likely to be revised upwards as more data becomes available.
The location of a death reflects the location of the hospital in which it occurred.
Source: NHS England COVID-19 Daily Deaths
The Office for National Statistics publishes deaths for England and Wales by the week in which they were registered. Due to the delay between the occurrence of a death and its registration, many deaths that occur in a given week will appear in the data for a subsequent week. For 2018, ONS estimated that 74% of deaths were registered within seven days. Additional delays in registration can occur over public holidays, with significant changes in numbers being observable over Easter and Christmas.
The location of a death reflects the usual residence of the deceased. There are some differences in total numbers reported for different geographical levels. The figures published at the local authority level have been used in this analysis.
The data is updated each Tuesday at 9.30am with data for the week ending eleven days prior. For the 2020 series, ONS has included the number of deaths where coronavirus (COVID-19) was mentioned on the death certificate. This data includes deaths for all places of occurrence.
The ONS started publishing deaths in care homes notified to the Care Quality Commission on 28th April for local authorities in England by date of notification. This data includes an additional week of data compared to the main ONS publication.
Source: Deaths registered weekly in England and Wales, provisional, Death registrations and occurrences by local authority, Deaths in care homes notified to the Care Quality Commission, report
