Death counts with COVID-19

DHSC and ONS death counts differ. Why?

The Department for Health and Social Care publish daily updates of COVID-19 deaths. The Office for National Statistics publish weekly registered deaths. These weekly numbers will now show deaths involving COVID-19.

These data series show different figures. This article explains that difference.

Update: I published this article on 4th April. Since that date, the DHSC changed their measure. The article is correct as of 1st June 2020.

Where do the figures come from?

DHSC publish daily updates to confirmed COVID-19 deaths. This is the number of patients who tested positive for COVID-19 and later died. The positive test must be in a Public Health, NHS or allied commercial laboratory. Public Health England also publish these figures.

The department compiles validated figures from each country. In England, the figures are from NHS England and Improvement. Public Health Wales provides counts for Wales.

Hospitals provide data, which NHS England extracts data at 5pm each day. Also, PHE Public Health Protection teams report notified deaths. Before 29th April, the England figures only included deaths in NHS-commissioned services.

On Saturdays, DHSC reports new recorded deaths between Thursday 5pm and Friday 5pm. That time window applies to England and Wales. For Scotland, the cut-off time is 9am on the day of…