Management information: Coronavirus (COVID-19) disease reports
Made by employers to HSE and Local Authorities since 10 April 2020
Where a worker has been diagnosed as having COVID-19 and there is reasonable evidence to suggest that it was caused by occupational exposure, employers are required to report the case to the relevant enforcing authority under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013(RIDDOR).
Latest published figures up to week ending 17 October show:
- the number of occupational COVID-19 notifications made to enforcing authorities has been generally increasing week-on-week since early September, though currently numbers are below the peak seen in April (1,183 reports at the peak compared with 530 reports made in the latest week)
- over the period 10 April – 17 October, 11,278 occupational disease notifications of COVID-19 in workers have been reported to enforcing authorities (HSE and LAs), including 162 death notifications
- around 80% of all worker reported cases (fatal and non-fatal) since 10 April were in HSE enforced workplaces
- the majority of reports received since 10 April were for workers in the Health and Social Work sector (including for example hospitals, residential homes and day care). Just under three-quarters of reports were recorded by employers against these activities, although the actual percentage may be higher as it is known that many reports for this sector get mis-classified by employers, particularly to the accommodation sector and to other personal services.
- however, since July as the economy has re-opened, more reports are now coming through from other sectors, such as Education and Manufacture. In the latest 4 week period (20 Sept – 17 Oct), 14% of all reports were recorded by employers against Education and 11% against manufacturing (compared with 3% each in total since 10 April). It should be noted though that the RIDDOR notification system suffers from widespread under-reporting which has the potential to give a distorted view of both the scale and spread of cases by important risk factors such as industry sector.
- 84% of worker COVID-19 reports received since 10 April were from workplaces in England, 9% in Wales and 7% in Scotland.
Total suspected occupational COVID-19 reports made by employers to the Enforcing Authorities, 12 April to 17 October 2020
| Week commencing | Number of reports |
|---|---|
| 12 Apr | 288 |
| 19 Apr | 847 |
| 26 Apr | 1183 |
| 03 May | 1062 |
| 10 May | 956 |
| 17 May | 915 |
| 24 May | 577 |
| 31 May | 607 |
| 07 Jun | 472 |
| 14 Jun | 374 |
| 21 Jun | 326 |
| 28 Jun | 223 |
| 05 Jul | 121 |
| 12 Jul | 177 |
| 19 Jul | 226 |
| 26 Jul | 140 |
| 02 Aug | 152 |
| 09 Aug | 83 |
| 16 Aug | 185 |
| 23 Aug | 110 |
| 30 Aug | 141 |
| 06 Sep | 373 |
| 13 Sep | 228 |
| 20 Sep | 237 |
| 27 Sep | 304 |
| 04 Oct | 423 |
| 11 Oct | 530 |
- all cases that are reported to HSE and Local Authorities are being assessed and investigations initiated where incidents meet our published Incident Selection Criteria. We are unable to comment on individual investigations at this time.
Notes
- The statutory disease reporting form was changed on 10 April to enable systematic identification of COVID-19 reports. Guidance was also issued on this date around reporting requirements for COVID-19 deaths under RIDDOR. While some COVID reports may have been made prior to 10 April, they will not be consistent with later time periods. Therefore the data considers reports from 10 April onwards only.
Advance notice: next planned update
These numbers will next be updated at 10am on Monday 23 November to cover the period ending 14 November 2020.