133 Molesworth Street 
PO Box 5013 
Wellington 6140 
New Zealand 
T+64 4 496 2000 
J M Harris 
By email:  [FYI request #12788 email] 
Ref:  
H202002979 
Dear Mr Harris 
Response to your request for official information 
Thank you for your request under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act) on 6 May 2020 to 
the Ministry of Health (the Ministry) for: 
“Total Number of Deaths in New Zealand per week from 1 January 2015 to 30 April 2020 
Under the Official Information Act I am requesting data on how many deaths in New 
Zealand occurred for each week of the year from 1 January 2015 to 30 April 2020” 
The Ministry is providing you the information of deaths registered per week from 1 January 2015 
to 9 April 2020. This is attached as Document 1. The numbers from 2018 onwards are a 
preliminary progress count and should not be reported as official Ministry figures. Please note 
not all registered deaths will have been supplied to the Ministry including recent periods. The 
information of the number of deaths per week from 16 April 2020 to 30 April 2020 is not held by 
the Ministry at this time. As such, this part of your request is refused under section 18(g) of the 
Act as the information is not held by the Ministry. I understand that you have already made this 
request to other agencies who may also hold relevant data and therefore we have not 
transferred this part of your request. 
I trust this information fulfils your request. Under section 28(3) of the Act you have the right to 
ask the Ombudsman to review any decisions made under this request. 
Please note that this response, with your personal details removed, may be published on the 
Ministry website. 
Yours sincerely 
Gaynor Bradfield 
Manager Office of the Deputy Director-General 
Data and Digital 

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