Kia ora, 

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OIA Services Team

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M[1]inistry of Health information releases 
U[2]nite against COVID-19 

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From: K Thompson <[FOI #24348 email]>
Sent: Saturday, 7 October 2023 16:12
To: OIA Requests <[email address]>
Subject: Official Information request - Deaths from Covid-19
 
Dear Health New Zealand/Ministry of Health

Thank you for you response to Official information request HNZ00017493

You said:
 "In the early days of the pandemic, COVID-19 death reporting was based on
an individual’s death
that occurred within 28 days of a positive case being uploaded. This
equates to the measure
‘deaths with COVID-19’. This is a metric that was easy to calculate from
data that was readily
available at the time (positive test date and death date).
Developing a ‘deaths from COVID-19’ metric required substantial time and
work. Cause of death is
coded by a specialised team within Te Whatu Ora/Health NZ, usually at a
significant time lag after
the event of the death. COVID-19 deaths have been fast-tracked for coding
where possible, and a
project was stood up to link COVID case data with cause of death data.
Completed in mid-2022, this project enabled us to identify whether
COVID-19 played a role in the
death of a person, or whether their COVID-19 infection was purely
incidental. Deaths of people
‘with COVID-19’ are now assigned into one of 4 categories.
1. COVID-19 as underlying
2. COVID-19 as contributory
3. Not COVID-19 (i.e. the person had COVID-19 at the time of death, but it
didn’t contribute to their
death)
4. Not available
The ‘COVID-19 as underlying’ and ‘COVID-19 as contributory’ categories are
often combined into
a single total, which we label interchangeably as ‘COVID-19 attributed
deaths’ or ‘deaths from
COVID-19’. This metric provides a better illustration of the impact of
COVID-19 on New Zealand
than the original ‘deaths within 28 days of positive test’ metric
originally reported. Consequently,
the move to reporting ‘deaths from COVID-19’ is the reason by the figures
on the website dropped"

1. After mid-2022, how did you determine that the cause of death was
definitely "FROM Covid-19", if "reporting [that] was based on an
individual’s death that occurred within 28 days of a positive case being
uploaded" was no longer sufficient?

2. How did you then determine that cause of death was Covid-19 "at a
significant time lag after the event of death"?

3.  Firstly you say death 'with COVID-19' included categories
Covid-19 as underlying
Covid-19 as contributory

Then you say that these two categories, either together or separately, are
used to label 'Covid-19 attributed deaths' or 'deaths from Covid-19'. 
These statements seem to make deaths WITH Covid-19 effectively the same as
deaths FROM Covid-19.  How do you determine the difference between WITH
and FROM Covid-19?

4.  What is the difference between "Covid-19 as underlying" and "Covid-19
as contributory"?

Thank you for your help.

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This is an Official Information request made via the FYI website.

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Tēnā koe, 

 

Thank you for contacting Te Whatu Ora, Health NZ. This is an automatic
reply to confirm that we have received your email.  Depending on the
nature of your request you may not receive a response for up to 20 working
days.  We will try to respond to your query as quickly as possible.

 

 

Ngā mihi

 

Te Whatu Ora, Health NZ.

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Kia ora,
 
Thank you for your request for information. Please find attached our
response to your request.
 
If you have any questions, please get in touch at
[1][email address].
 
If you are not happy with this response, you have the right to make a
complaint to the Ombudsman. Information about how to do this is available
at [2]www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or by phoning 0800 802 602.
 
Ngā mihi,
 
Giana
Te Whatu Ora Ministerial Team

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immediately and delete this message.
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References

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1. mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/

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