Coronavirus deaths without underlying health conditions: FOI release

Information requested

Information and [to] make public the number of people who have lost their life in Scotland purely from coronavirus. i.e have not had any underlying health conditions.

Response

This information was published by National Records of Scotland (NRS) on 13 May 2020 for the time period up 30 April 2020.
https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files//statistics/covid19/covid-deaths-report-week-19.pdf

Of the 296 deaths involving COVID-19 in March, 92% (271) had at least one pre-existing condition. In April, 2,281 (91%) of the 2,497 people who died with COVID-19 had at least one pre-existing condition.
Therefore in March and April there were 241 deaths involving COVID-19 where the person did not have any pre-existing health conditions.  This data will be updated on a monthly basis by NRS and will published on the NRS website.
https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/covid19stats

It is also important to note there are two reporting measures of COVID-19 deaths in Scotland:
(i) The daily reported deaths figure which is provided by Health Protection Scotland (HPS) to the Scottish Government. This reports deaths which have occurred within 28 days of a laboratory positive result for COVID-19.
https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-trends-in-daily-data/
(ii) a weekly reported deaths figure which is produced by the National Records of Scotland (NRS).
This reports all deaths where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate either as the underlying cause of death or as a contributory cause. The data provided for your response is taken from the NRS report.
https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/covid19stats

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.