Changing measures again

The England count for daily COVID-19 deaths changes again.

Public Health England published their review of the daily COVID-19 death measure. That review changed the measure to:

Deaths are only included if the deceased had had a positive test for COVID-19 and died within 28 days of the first positive test.

This article looks at the consequences of that change.

The total count reduces by over 5,000

Public Health England’s original measure had no time limit.

Someone could test positive for SARS-CoV-2 in March. After recovery, they die of unrelated causes in July. Since that person had a prior positive test, their unrelated death would count as a ‘COVID-19 death’. Public Health agencies in the rest of the UK would not count that as a ‘COVID-19 death’.

After their review, Public Health England introduced two new measures:

• Death within 28 days: the death occurs within 28 days of the first lab test confirming SARS-CoV-2.
• Death within 60 days, or COVID-19 on death certificate: the death is within 60 days of the first positive test. After 60 days, a death counts if the death certificate mentions COVID-19.

On 12th August 2020, the measures stood at:

• No time limit: 42,072
• Death within 60 days, or COVID-19 on death certificate: 40,404