Covid fatalities as percent of overall deaths lower in NI than GB

The NI Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) today released a breakdown of deaths connected to the virus in the Province, taken from the start of March – just as the virus made its appearance – until the end of August.

It showed that “Covid-19 related” fatalities accounted for 10.9% of all deaths during that period.

In terms of individual human lives, that 10.9% figure represents 875 people.

The News Letter compared Northern Ireland’s NISRA figures of 10.9% against similar data for other parts of the UK.

Government figures for England & Wales appear to show about 16.7% of all deaths there were Covid-related (that is to say, where Covid was mentioned on a death certificate).

However a 100% precise comparison between NI and England & Wales is not possible because the latter’s figures only go up to mid-August, not the end of the month.

And the Scottish figures show that Covid-linked deaths seems to make up roughly 14% of their total (but again, Scottish figures only went up to mid-August – so it is a close, but not exact, comparison).

Much of the analysis of the coronavirus crisis hangs on exactly how Covid-related deaths are defined.

For example, NISRA’s definition of a “Covid-19 related” fatality is “all deaths where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate by the doctor who certified the death, whether or not Covid-19 was the primary underlying cause of death”.

There has been a long-standing difference of approach between NISRA on the one hand (run by the Department of Finance) , and the Department of Health on the other.

The Department of Health records 561 deaths in the same March-through-August period, with its own definition of Covid-related deaths being “where the deceased had a positive test for Covid-19 and died within 28 days, whether or not Covid-19 was the cause of death”.

Another key set of figures released today by NISRA was the area breakdown.

This showed that in the Belfast City Council area, there were 90 deaths per 100,000 – the highest in NI – followed by the neighbouring Antrim and Newtownabbey with 73.1 per 100,000.

Fermanagh and Omagh District Council area had the lowest rates with 17.2 per 100,000.

Meanwhile, only 102 of the 875 (11.7%) Covid-19 related deaths were persons of working age (aged 20-69).

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