COVID-19 percentage change in deaths compared with previous 7 days
Last updated on Tuesday, 14 January 2025 at 10:50am
Summary
- Topic
- COVID-19
- Category
- headline
- API name
COVID-19_headline_ONSdeaths_7DayPercentChange
Status
Active
Rationale
COVID-19 deaths depend on the scale and severity of recent COVID-19 cases.
Definition
This metric shows the percentage change between the total number of deaths in the 7 days leading up to the date shown of people whose death certificate mentioned COVID-19 as one of the causes compared to the previous 7 days. Deaths are reported by date of death registration.
Methodology
Deaths where COVID-19 is mentioned as one of the causes on the death certificate are reported by the Office for National Statistics.
The deceased may or may not have had a confirmed positive test for COVID-19. People who had COVID-19 but did not have it mentioned on their death certificate as a cause of death are excluded.
Deaths are allocated to the deceased's usual area of residence.
Bank holidays can affect the number of deaths registered in a given week.
The percentage change in new deaths in the last 7 days is calculated as the difference between:
- the total of the daily deaths registered in the 7 days up to and including the most recent date with "complete" data
- the total of the daily deaths registered in the previous 7 days
The difference is then divided by the total of the daily deaths registered in the previous 7 days.
Caveats
A change from 0 to a number greater than 0 will be displayed as 100% increase. A change from a number greater than 0 to 0 will be displayed as -100% i.e. a 100% decrease