• Anna E Bone, Anne M Finucane, Javiera Leniz, Irene J Higginson, and Katherine E Sleeman.
• Cicely Saunders Institute of Palliative Care, Policy and Rehabilitation, King's College London, London, UK.
• Palliat Med. 2020 Oct 1; 34 (9): 119312011193-1201.

BackgroundCOVID-19 has directly and indirectly caused high mortality worldwide.AimTo explore patterns of mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic and implications for palliative care, service planning and research.DesignDescriptive analysis and population-based modelling of routine data.Participants And SettingAll deaths registered in England and Wales between 7 March and 15 May 2020. We described the following mortality categories by age, gender and place of death: (1) baseline deaths (deaths that would typically occur in a given period); (2) COVID-19 deaths and (3) additional deaths not directly attributed to COVID-19. We estimated the proportion of people who died from COVID-19 who might have been in their last year of life in the absence of the pandemic using simple modelling with explicit assumptions.ResultsDuring the first 10 weeks of the pandemic, there were 101,614 baseline deaths, 41,105 COVID-19 deaths and 14,520 additional deaths. Deaths in care homes increased by 220%, while home and hospital deaths increased by 77% and 90%, respectively. Hospice deaths fell by 20%. Additional deaths were among older people (86% aged ⩾ 75 years), and most occurred in care homes (56%) and at home (43%). We estimate that 22% (13%-31%) of COVID-19 deaths occurred among people who might have been in their last year of life in the absence of the pandemic.ConclusionThe COVID-19 pandemic has led to a surge in palliative care needs. Health and social care systems must ensure availability of palliative care to support people with severe COVID-19, particularly in care homes.

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