The Department of Health and Social Care and Office for National Statistics have prepared a paper on the direct and indirect health impacts of COVID-19 between March 2020 and Spring 2021.
A short version of the paper (18 pages) was published on 9th September 2021.
Key findings taken from the report:
Behavioural, economic and health service changes
There has been an increase in underlying need from alcohol and substance abuse and domestic violence
Primary care consultations fell significantly compared to their 2016-2019 average after the start of the pandemic and only fully recovered by May 2021
There has been a fall in referrals to secondary care for routine appointments mirroring the fall in numbers of GP consultations
The adverse economic shock and impacts on education are likely to lead to poorer health in the population and future health care need
Covid-19 mortality rates by ethnicity
During the first wave of the pandemic, people from all ethnic minority groups (except for women in the Chinese or "White Other" ethnic groups) had higher rates of death involving Covid-19 compared with the White British population.
In the first lockdown, the mortality rate was highest for the Black African group, followed by the Bangladeshi, Black Caribbean and Pakistani ethnic groups.
Effects on health across socioeconomic groups
People in the most deprived socioeconomic groups have experienced greater adverse health impacts in almost all categories of harm for which we could consider deprivation
Recent estimates for “Long Covid” (August 2021) also show that self-reported symptoms are 50% higher in people in the most deprived quintile, compared to the least deprived (1.89% of people experiencing Long Covid compared to 1.24%)
Regional differences
Greater London experienced greatest direct health impacts of COVID-19: it had the highest rate of deaths to April 2021 once population size and age were taken into account
The West Midlands, East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber suffered less from direct COVID-19 impacts, but experienced greater impacts through reduced non-COVID-19 activity in the NHS with elective care down more than 38% between February 2020 and February 2021
Covid-19 statistics related to age
99% of deaths from Covid were recorded in people over the age of 45, but the age group with the greatest percentage reporting symptoms 5 weeks post infection is the 35-49 year-old-group (25.6% of infected individuals report symptoms at 5 weeks post infection) and the 25-34-year-old group have the greatest percentage reporting symptoms 12 weeks post infection (18.2%).
In April 2020, there was a drop in mental illness referrals from the February levels of around half in 0-18 year olds; compared to around a third in adults (19+), but these have recovered and have been above pre-pandemic levels since September 2020.
