Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 4 April 2022 on Mortality Rates: Coronavirus, what specific observations he has made of the (a) infection, (b) hospitalisation and (c) mortality rates relating to covid-19 in York.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in York Upper Tier Local Authority was highest in January 2022 and has since declined. Data on COVID-19 hospitalisation rates in York is not available in the format requested. Since early 2021, deaths within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 test have remained low in York, averaging less than one death per day. This is consistent with England as a whole.
Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to investigate excess deaths among males aged 15 to 19 in response to the ONS' finding that there had been a statistically significant increase in that number from 1 May to 24 December 2021.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, in collaboration with the Office for National Statistics (ONS), investigated excess deaths in young people in 2021. On 22 March 2022, the ONS published ‘COVID-19 vaccination and mortality in young people during the coronavirus pandemic’, which reviewed the observation that more deaths were registered in England in 2021 for young people, compared with the average for the five years preceding the pandemic. The report is available at the following link:
The analysis confirmed more deaths were registered in young people aged 15 to 29 years old in England in 2021 than the average number registered in 2015 to 2019. There were 113 excess deaths in males and 66 excess deaths in females this age group in 2021. For males aged 15 to 19 years old, there were 72 excess deaths in 2021, compared with the average for 2015 to 2019. There is no evidence that these excess deaths were linked to COVID-19 vaccination and there was no increase in registrations of cardiac-related deaths. The excess death registrations in 2021 in those aged 15 to 29 years old were instead largely due to deaths from external causes and COVID-19.
The increase in death registrations in 2021 followed a fall in 2020. It is likely that the excess in 2021 was influenced by the known disruption to the operation of coroners’ courts, particularly during spring 2020. For deaths of people aged 15 to 29 years old from all causes registered in 2021, 32% occurred in 2020. For this reason, the report also looked at deaths by the year in which they occurred. Deaths which occurred in 2020 increased for some causes, including accidental poisonings for males aged 15 to 24 years old. For deaths which occurred in 2021, this information is not yet available.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 9 February 2022 to Question 92799 on Coronavirus: Vaccination, in how many of the Yellow Card cases where the patient was reported to have died shortly after vaccination did the analysis show that the event would have happened regardless of the vaccine or medicine being administered.
Answered by Maggie Throup
As of 23 March 2022, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) received 2,075 reports of suspected adverse drug reactions (ADRs) to COVID-19 vaccinations in which the patient died shortly after the vaccine had been administered. This is following over 140 million COVID-19 vaccinations administered in the United Kingdom. However, an ADR report associated with a fatal outcome does not mean that the vaccine caused the death. The MHRA assesses information received through the Yellow Card scheme to determine the likelihood of an association between the vaccine and any suspected ADR. This involves considering the overall pattern of reports and considering whether there are more events than would normally be expected in the general population. However, the MHRA does not assess whether an individual’s death was directly caused by a vaccine.
The product information leaflets for the COVID-19 vaccines provide a list of the side effects potentially associated with the vaccines, with warnings and precautions on particular events to ensure that vaccine administrators are aware of specific advice and information. Such events include anaphylaxis for all vaccines, myocarditis and pericarditis for the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines and thrombocytopenia syndrome and neurological events for the AstraZeneca vaccine. These warnings include a description of the evidence for these events being associated with the vaccines, which will include spontaneous ADR reports, such as Yellow Cards, the signs and symptoms to be aware of and advice relating to the identification and treatment of these events, where appropriate.
The MHRA keeps the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines under review and will update the information leaflets for the vaccines and communicate to patients and healthcare professionals should any new safety concerns be identified. The MHRA does not recommend remedial action to patients.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 9 February to Question 92799 on Coronavirus: Vaccination, what is the maximum period following death which meets the criterion of a person reported as having died shortly after vaccination; and whether the same criterion applies to (a) Astra Zeneca, (b) Moderna and (c) Pfizer covid-19 vaccines.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
There is no maximum period of time following a fatal suspected adverse event after exposure to a medicinal product which determines whether such a report is included in the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s (MHRA) listings of fatal events. However, particularly in the case of products with acute or one-off exposure, such as vaccines, the majority of deaths reported to the MHRA occurred within days or weeks following vaccination. In the MHRA’s weekly summary of adverse drug reaction reporting for COVID-19 vaccines, this is described as ‘shortly after vaccination’. The same approach applies for all vaccines used in the United Kingdom programme.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 15 March 2022 to Question 121676 on Yellow Card Scheme: Coronavirus, what the average time taken is to analyse each yellow card; whether yellow cards reporting serious injury or death are subject to more detailed analysis; and if he will ask the MHRA to share the assessment of an individual report when the patient who is the subject of that report so requests.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) have not made a specific assessment of the average time taken to analyse a Yellow Card reports. However, reports received are promptly recorded on the MHRA’s adverse drug reaction (ADR) database to accurately reflect the specific Yellow Card report which supports effective action on emerging information on harms. Those reports with fatal or serious ADRs are prioritised for review, with events of particular interest given the highest priority.
For the COVID-19 vaccines, the MHRA’s assessors perform signal assessment on the Yellow Card data several days a week and events of interest are discussed at twice weekly meetings. Serious Yellow Card reports, particularly those with a fatal outcome, are followed up to enable assessment of the report. There are no plans to request the MHRA to share the assessment of individual reports with the patient.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of people who have died from covid-19 received anti-viral treatments.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate she has made of the proportion of people who have died from covid-19 in the last 12 months who were unvaccinated.
Answered by Maggie Throup
No specific estimate has been made. However, the UK Health Security Agency publishes the numbers and rates of COVID-19 cases, hospitalisations and deaths by vaccination status by age for the most recent four-week period on a weekly basis. Between the week commencing 21 February 2022 and the week ending 20 March 2022, of 2,084 people who died within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 test, 202 or approximately 10% were not vaccinated.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Spen Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of extending registration of deaths by telephone following the expiration of the Coronavirus Act 2020.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Regulations have been introduced which will allow information to be collected by telephone before attendance at a register office to formally register a death.
The General Register Office for England and Wales is exploring options to bring forward amendments to primary legislation to allow for registration by telephone to be completed in the future.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of total recorded deaths of UK citizens who died while infected with the Omicron variant of covid-19, died primarily as a result of (a) that infection and (b) a different cause, to date.
Answered by Maggie Throup
This information is not held in the format requested. To 29 December 2021, there were 981 confirmed cases of the Omicron variant which were hospitalised and 75 deaths. As Omicron is now the dominant strain in England, as of 1 January 2022 these statistics are no longer reported separately.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many death certificates have recorded both covid-19 and underlying industrial disease since March 2020.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have, therefore, asked the Authority to respond.