True number of UK coronavirus deaths could be over 20% MORE than official figures: Government reveals 40 more people had died outside hospitals up to March 20th compared with official death toll then of 170
- Office for National Statistics now releases weekly deaths from outside hospitals
- As of yesterday 1,408 people had died with the virus inside NHS hospitals
- New statistics show people who die in care homes and their own houses
- Coronavirus symptoms: what are they and should you see a doctor?
The true death toll of the coronavirus outbreak in the UK could be 24 per cent higher than NHS figures show, according to statistics released today.
Patients who had COVID-19 mentioned on their death certificates numbered 210 in England and Wales up to March 20, the Office for National Statistics revealed.
This was 24 per cent higher than the 177 deaths recorded by NHS England and Public Health Wales during the same time frame.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has launched a new data series adding in the numbers of people who have died with or after having COVID-19 in the community, including those who died in care homes or at home.
Coronavirus was not necessarily the cause of death for every one of the patients, but was believed to have been a factor.
The data does not include Scotland or Northern Ireland – up to March 20, eight people had died in the those countries (six in Scotland, two in Northern Ireland), suggesting the true figure could be 10.
Anyone who has the virus – for which at least 22,141 people have tested positive in the UK – mentioned on their death certificate will be included in the statistics.
This adds to the daily updates coming from NHS hospitals around the country where patients of all ages are dying in intensive care units.
A makeshift hospital has been set up in London at the ExCel London, the Nightingale Hospital, to cope with a surge in coronavirus patients
A refrigerated mortuary is pictured at the Nightingale Hospital in central London
Paramedics wearing protective gear wheel a patient into an ambulance at St Thomas’ Hospital in London
A paramedic is pictured in the back of an ambulance at a hospital in London, which is at the heart of the UK’s fast-growing coronavirus epidemic
The ONS showed that a total 210 deaths in England and Wales that occurred up to and including March 20 (and which were registered up to March 25) had COVID-19 mentioned on the death certificate.
This compares with 170 coronavirus-related deaths reported by NHS England and Public Health Wales up to and including March 20.
The new figures will show any death that is linked by medics to the virus, no matter where the patient died.
With 1,408 deaths so far recorded in hospitals in the UK, officials are expecting an increase and a sharp hike in the next few weeks.
The reason that coming weeks will see a sharp rise is that even the figures being released today have a time lag of 11 days.
This is the time that takes for a death to be officially registered.
It comes after the number of patients being treated in hospital for Covid-19 doubled in less than a week.
Head of the NHS Sir Simon Stevens said that more than 9,000 people were in hospital with coronavirus on Monday, up from 4,300 on Thursday.
The Office for National Statistics will publish its figures on a weekly basis as of today.
Figures were recorded as dropping from 209 on Sunday and 260 on Saturday – in what was Britain’s darkest day in the crisis yet.
Sir Simon Stevens (pictured at the NHS Nightingale) more than 9,000 people were in hospital with coronavirus on Monday, up from 4,300 on Thursday
Britain’s first temporary coronavirus hospital will be used to treat patients who were previously fit and healthy, when it opens this week.
The ExCel Centre in Newham, East London, will start with 500 beds open for Covid-19 patients, but there is space for up to 4,000 should demand grow.
London’s temporary Nightingale hospital has been built to treat people who are at a lower risk of dying from the disease, so it will mostly treat the Capital’s younger patients who were healthy before the outbreak, The Guardian reports.