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