There are several different ways these figures are collected and reported. As for the cause of death, FullFact has this to say: When completing a death certif

There are several different ways these figures are collected and reported. As for the cause of death, FullFact has this to say: When completing a death certificate, the responsible medical professional is asked to determine which conditions may have contributed to death. They are also asked to determine “the disease or injury that initiated the train of events directly leading to death” and this is called the “underlying cause”.[0] So deaths that were caused by COVID-19 will be reported as such, and that's different from the number of people that died with COVID-19. Note also that it's a criminal offence to knowingly report an incorrect cause of death on a death certificate. [0] https://fullfact.org/health/causes-of-death-october-2020/ https://fullfact.org/health/causes-of-death-october-2020/