The UK has announced 778 more deaths from the coronavirus today, taking the UK’s total to 12,107 after three weeks of nationwide lockdown.
NHS England confirmed 744 more patients have died in its hospitals and a total of 34 fatalities were announced across Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The increase from 717 deaths recorded yesterday is small – 8.5 per cent – but it comes at the end of a four-day bank holiday weekend, meaning deaths that happened after Wednesday last week may be underreported because of a data lag which appears to happen every weekend.
Government scientists have cautioned against pinning too much hope to the numbers of people dying because they date back up to two weeks and do not represent the situation on the day they’re published.
A more promising development is the apparent stabilising of the number of people being diagnosed with the virus each day – 5,252 more people were diagnosed in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of positive tests so far to 93,873.
Today’s statistics come amid a row over care homes’ role in the ongoing crisis. Elderly people account for the vast majority of COVID-19 deaths but authorities are not routinely testing the 400,000 Britons who live in care homes and records only publish homes’ death statistics in once-weekly updates which are 10 days out of date.
And a shocking analysis from the Office for Budget Responsibility, an arms-length government organisation, has warned Britain’s economy could shrink by a third as a result of the coronavirus and, if the lockdown lasts for another two months, 10 per cent of the workforce (two million people) could end up unemployed.
NHS England today said its newest update meant 11,005 people in England have now died after testing positive for COVID-19.
The 744 patients were aged between 34 and 102 and 58 of them were otherwise healthy, the youngest of whom was 38 and the oldest 96.
After a lapse behind the Midlands yesterday, London has returned to its position as the centre of the UK’s outbreak, accounting for 206 of the deaths announced today.
Meanwhile 143 more people have died in the North West, 109 in the Midlands, 95 in the East of England, 93 in the North East & Yorkshire, 73 in the South East and 25 in the South West.
The Department of Health has officially recorded 34 more deaths for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, but the devolved nations independently recorded more.
Scotland said 40 more people have died there, Wales 19 and Northern Ireland 10 – a total of 69 – meaning the true number for Britain is at least 12,142.
Because the four governments record their data at different times these statistics do not line up – some of those that happen outside of England will be recorded by Whitehall tomorrow instead.
Today’s update comes as a different set of data published this morning, by the Office for National Statistics, an independent governmental statistics department, revealed the true COVID-19 death toll may be 15 per cent higher than the Department of Health’s daily announcements let on.
The ONS found that, by April 3, the NHS in England had recorded 5,186 COVID-19 deaths but a count of death certificates on which the disease was mentioned put the true figure at 5,979 – a rise of 793 (15.3 per cent).
Those 793 people were those who died in care homes, hospices and their own houses and are now being referred to as the crisis’s hidden victims.
If this same proportion is scaled up to Britain’s current death toll – 12,107 – it could mean there are at least 1,816 people who have already died at home and not been counted.
Nick Stripe, head of health analysis at the ONS said: ‘The latest comparable data for deaths involving COVID-19 with a date of death up to 3 April, show there were 6,235 deaths in England and Wales.
‘When looking at data for England, this is 15 per cent higher than the NHS numbers as they include all mentions of COVID-19 on the death certificate, including suspected COVID-19, as well as deaths in the community.’