Government of Jersey

COVID-19 related deaths and heart specialist referrals (FOI)

Produced by the Freedom of Information office
Authored by Government of Jersey and published on 20 May 2022.
Prepared internally, no external costs.

Request

Please provide numbers of deaths happening within 28 days of receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, month by month since the vaccination programme started.

Please provide numbers of referrals to a heart specialist, month by month for the past 2 years to date.

Response

Based on deaths currently registered as having occurred between December 2020 and April 2022. Details of the number of deaths occurring within 28 days of a vaccine (any dose) are provided in the table below. Deaths are from all causes and show where an individual happened to have received a vaccine dose in the 28 days prior to death. This does not include deaths of Jersey residents where vaccination has occurred outside of Jersey.

There is no indication on death certificates that death was linked to the vaccine. The high uptake of vaccine by elderly people, who are at greater risk of dying, will mean that a large proportion of deaths will have occurred in those who had been vaccinated.

Year	Month	Number of deaths occurring within 28 days of a COVID vaccine dose	Note on vaccination rollout
2020	December	<5	1st dose rollout began for care home residents and staff 13th December, with second doses following between four and twelve weeks after first dose was administered
2021	January	18	13th January, over 80s invited for first dose, with second doses following between four and twelve weeks after first dose was administered
	February	20	1st dose available for over 70's and clinically vulnerable, with second doses following between four and twelve weeks after first dose was administered
	March	10
	April	13
	May	5
	June	<5
	July	0
	August	<5
	September	<5	Those in priority groups 1-9 called for a third dose ("booster dose") once at least 6 months had passed since the second dose was administered
	October	13
	November	8
	December	9
2022	January	5
	February	0
	March	5	Those aged 75 years and over, immunocompromised, or older adults living in residential care called for a fourth dose ("spring booster"), once at least three months elapsed since the third dose was administered.
	April	6

Where numbers are fewer than five, disclosure control is applied to avoid identification of individuals. Article 25 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

The table below shows the count of referrals received by Health and Community Services per month under the specialties of Cardiac Surgery, Cardiology or Paediatric Cardiology.

Month	Count of Referrals Received
Apr-20	63
May-20	41
Jun-20	112
Jul-20	156
Aug-20	113
Sep-20	114
Oct-20	176
Nov-20	148
Dec-20	104
Jan-21	115
Feb-21	127
Mar-21	170
Apr-21	174
May-21	128
Jun-21	194
Jul-21	118
Aug-21	147
Sep-21	147
Oct-21	133
Nov-21	192
Dec-21	142
Jan-22	166
Feb-22	156
Mar-22	204

Data Source: Hospital Patient Administration System (TrakCare, Report WLS6B)

Note: April 2022 was not available at the time this FOI request was received (20 April 2022)

Article applied

Article 25 - Personal information

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2005.

(2) Information is absolutely exempt information if –

(a) it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is not the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2005; and

(b) its supply to a member of the public would contravene any of the data protection principles, as defined in that Law.