Technical Summary: Public Health England Data Series on Deaths in People with COVID-19
Some interesting highlights in this PDF;
(Purple text is my opinion)
g. The PHE data series does not include deaths in people where COVID-19 was suspected but a laboratory test was not carried out or was negative. Furthermore, the PHE data series does not report cause of death, and as such represents deaths in people with COVID-19 and not necessarily due to COVID-19. The weekly counts of deaths from ONS includes all deaths where COVID-19 is recorded on the death certificate.
5.4 Limitations of the PHE data series. The PHE data series does not include deaths in people where COVID-19 is suspected but not confirmed by testing (either negative or not done). Furthermore, the PHE data series does not report cause of death, and as such represents deaths in people with COVID-19 and not necessarily due to COVID-19.
ONS provides a weekly count of all deaths in England and Wales where COVID-19 is recorded on the death certificate (eg including deaths where COVID-19 was suspected based on symptoms and/or linked to an outbreak, and not limited to laboratory confirmed cases); these are reported on an 11-day lag.
The last highlight is alarming considering the spoopy death certificates in USA but not limited to.
6. If deaths are being reported from several sources, are we over counting deaths? We are carefully going through the data and have developed a process to ensure the data are accurate and a person who died is not counted twice across different reporting systems.
Negating duplicates should go without saying! Should be standard procedure, There is also an emphasis on this 'counted twice' in the document. Why not only collect laboratory tested results from the get-go?
–Also this document was released on April 29th as to clarify the takeover of the PHE (Public Health England) statistics from DHSC (Department of Health and Social Care) & ONS (Office for
National Statistics), me thinks some brushing up under the rug is going on.–
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/882565/Technical_Summary_PHE_Data_Series_COVID-19_Deaths_20200429.pdf