The UK's coronavirus death toll has surged by 3,811 to 26,097 now that the Government has started counting people who died in care homes or their own houses - but its tally still falls thousands short of the reality.
Today is the first time the Department of Health has included people dying outside of hospitals in its daily statistics, and the backdated numbers have added thousands to the death toll, which was yesterday 21,678.
But a bigger surge had been expected. The Office for National Statistics reports that more than 4,300 people are known to have died in care homes by April 17, but the Care Quality Commission has recorded more than 4,300 in just a fortnight in England alone.
However, the Government will only include people who have tested positive for the virus in its statistics, despite rationing almost all the testing kits to hospitals for the first month of the outbreak.
Professor John Newton, the Government's testing chief, yesterday explained officials had been working on the assumption that if one person tested positive for COVID-19 in a home then anyone else who developed symptoms probably also had it and didn't need testing.
The ONS and CQC continue to put out more reliable but slower statistics which include reports of people who were suspected to have the disease but were never diagnosed and, as a result, but the number of people dying outside of hospitals significantly higher.
ONS data suggests that the real number of victims maybe 55 percent higher than the Government is letting on, putting the figure at more than 40,000 already. Records in Scotland, meanwhile, show hospital deaths now account for just 52 percent of fatalities, suggesting the true number is 43,000. The Financial Times estimates that 47,000 people have died already.
The Department of Health's data today, however, suggests that hospital patients still make up 83 percent of all fatalities - something which is not borne out by any other statistics being published in the UK.
Britain today announced 765 more hospital patients have died of the coronavirus, of whom around 600 died in hospitals. NHS England announced 445 more victims, including a healthy 14-year-old, to add to 83 declared in Scotland and 73 in Wales.
It comes as the number of people known to have died in care homes is soaring and one expert from the University of Cambridge said people may now be dying at a faster rate in homes than in hospitals.
The professor, a highly regarded statistics expert and an OBE recipient, spoke of 'massive, unprecedented spikes' in the numbers of care home fatalities and said there was no evidence that care homes were over the worst of the outbreak, as the rest of the country is believed to be.
He told MailOnline today's updated death toll was not high enough and the truth was 'at least as much again', putting the total higher than 30,000.
Government ministers, pressured on claims they haven't done enough to help care homes, insist care was 'not overlooked' during a scramble to protect the NHS. Environment Secretary George Eustice said this morning 'we have always recognized there was more vulnerability there'. He denied that more testing would have saved lives.
In other coronavirus news:
Some 4,516 homes had reported cases of the virus between March 17 and April 27, which represents around 29 percent of all homes.
The North East of England has been worst hit, with four in 10 of its care homes affected (291 total), followed by the North West (36 percent) and London (33 percent).
Government ministers are now having to fend off accusations that they left the 400,000 people living in care homes in the lurch in the early stages of Britain's epidemic when they focused their efforts on NHS hospitals.
Chief government scientist Sir Patrick Vallance admitted this week that Whitehall was told 'very early on' - believed to be late January or early February - that care homes would be a danger zone. The Government has been accused of 'shambolic' and haphazard' attempts to support the sector since then and the first death wasn't announced until March 31.
The CQC said a total of 4,343 people with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 died in care homes between April 10 and April 24 alone.
ONS statistics published yesterday show that more than a quarter of all COVID-19 deaths are happening outside of hospitals - by April 17 there had been 4,316 non-hospital deaths out of a total of 19,112.
Almost three-quarters of people living in care homes have dementia, making them extremely vulnerable, and many have other serious health problems.
Professor Spiegelhalter said: 'While COVID deaths in hospitals have been steadily declining since April 8 and now number around 400-450 a day, new Care Quality Commission data show that last week there were around 350-400 COVID deaths in English care-homes each day.
'When we add in deaths at home, this suggests there are now about as many COVID deaths out of the hospital. And while hospital deaths are steadily decreasing, there is no sign yet that we are past the peak in care homes.'
Speaking to BBC Radio 4 yesterday, he added, 'slightly sticking my neck out' that there were actually more happening outside of hospitals.
As more detail has emerged showing how hard nursing homes have been hit by the virus, the Government is facing growing pressure to explain its actions and apparent lack of support.
Although care homes are not run by the Government and many are owned by private, profit-making companies, they house hundreds of thousands of the country's most vulnerable people and have close links to local councils, which fund some residents' fees, and NHS services.
Politicians have hit back against claims the care sector was overlooked.
Environment Secretary George Eustice told BBC Radio 4 today: 'I don't accept it was overlooked, but obviously there was a real focus on our NHS because there were concerns that it might be overwhelmed and we wanted to make sure they had absolutely everything they needed.
But in the case of care homes, we have always recognized that there was more vulnerability there.'
Asked if tests not being available earlier for care home workers had cost lives, Mr. Eustice told BBC Breakfast: 'I don't think it is in that we've been working very very closely with the care sector and they have had very clear protocols in place.
'Because those staffs are dealing with the obviously very vulnerable cohort, the elderly, sometimes people with other conditions, if they are showing any symptoms at all then they must not be at work.
'Obviously, testing does help and we're now able to roll that testing out.'
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Source: SAM BLANCHARD SENIOR HEALTH REPORTER FOR MAILONLINE and STEPHEN MATTHEWS HEALTH EDITOR FOR MAILONLINE
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