Fears UK will become Europe’s worst-hit as daily coronavirus death toll for care homes to be released

The full impact of coronavirus on the UK is set to be revealed as the Government prepares to publish the country's death toll for care homes on a daily basis.

Experts fear that once care home and community deaths are factored in, the UK could end up with the highest casualty rate anywhere in Europe.

There is currently an 11-day time lag for the Office of National Statistics' (ONS) data on the number of people who have died in care homes and their own homes after contracting Covid-19.

But Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the public would receive up-to-date figures to go alongside the number of hospital deaths as of Wednesday.

The Department of Health and Social Care said figures dating back from early March up to April 28 would also be declared.

A Government graph showed that, once community and care home deaths were factored in, the UK could end up with the highest casualty rate in Europe, including Italy, Spain and France.

Speaking at the Number 10 press briefing on Tuesday, Mr Hancock said there has been an effort to "bring as much transparency as possible" to the death figures.

It comes as 21,678 patients have now died in hospital after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Monday, up 586 on the day before.

Analysis showed some 24,243 deaths involving coronavirus have been formally registered across the UK, though the true toll is thought to be far higher.

ONS figures released on Tuesday showed around three in 10 of all Covid-19 deaths are now occurring in care homes.

Elsewhere:

- British Airways said that it was set to make up to 12,000 workers redundant.

- An NHS contact tracing app could be ready for deployment in the next three weeks, Mr Hancock confirmed.

- First Minister Nicola Sturgeon advised people in Scotland to use face coverings in places where social distancing is difficult, although the advice remains unchanged in England.

- More than 100 NHS and social care workers are now known to have died in the UK, according to analysis.

Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter, a statistician at the University of Cambridge, said more coronavirus deaths could now be occurring in care facilities and in homes than in hospitals.

He told BBC Radio 4's World At One programme: "I think we can be very confident that our deaths in English hospitals peaked around April 8 - we had about 850 deaths and now they are down to around 400 deaths a day occurring in English hospitals - a steady but slow decline.

"However, we've now just got new data that the Care Quality Commission have been reporting on notifications from care homes about deaths from Covid.

"They receive those really quite up to date, only a couple of days' delay, but that goes right up until April 24 - just a few days ago - when they were getting 400 notifications a day of deaths in care homes from Covid.

"When we add on deaths at home from Covid, makes me - slightly sticking my neck out - believing that recently that more deaths occurring from Covid out of hospital than in hospital."

Questions on care homes, the lockdown and the Government's target of carrying out 100,000 Covid-19 tests per day are likely to be raised at Prime Minister's Questions.

Number 10 refused to confirm whether Boris Johnson, who only returned to work on Monday following his close brush with coronavirus, would make an appearance.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is due to talk with the Prime Minister over the phone later in the afternoon to discuss concerns over the lockdown.

It comes as Downing Street was forced to deny it had watered down requirements for allowing the lockdown to be lifted.

No 10 came in for questioning following Tuesday's press conference after it was noted that its "five tests" for easing the lockdown featured altered wording.

This sparked speculation that ministers are preparing to lift some restrictions next week.

One minute silence to NHS heroes who lost lives to the Coronavirus

1/19

Rather than stating in test five that the Government had to be confident any adjustments would not "risk a second peak of infections", the wording was changed to say no weakening of restrictions would be made that risked a second peak that "overwhelms the NHS".

Mr Hancock has repeatedly said that the NHS managed to cope with the first peak of infections, which is understood to have occurred around Easter.

Asked about the alteration, No 10 insisted no change had been made to the tests and pointed to comments made by First Secretary of State Dominic Raab on April 16, in which he used similar phrasing.

The lockdown is due to be reviewed on May 7 and ministers are under pressure to lift some social distancing restrictions in order to kick-start the economy.

In a sign that the Government’s position could be softening, non-essential goods retailers were told click-and-collect services could continue to operate as long as customers do not have to enter stores to pick up their purchases.

"Stores can operate click-and-collect services as long as orders are taken online, by telephone or via post, and customers remain outside of the store to collect their goods," said a Government spokesman.

Testing will be more widely rolled out, Mr Hancock has confirmed, to allow those who need to leave the house for work to be tested for coronavirus.

Furthermore, as part of a massive expansion of testing as the Government tries to hit 100,000-tests-a day by Thursday, the Cabinet minister said care home residents and staff, together with NHS patients and staff, can now get a test whether they have symptoms or not.

Older people over the age of 65 plus anyone in their households are also eligible, but only if they have symptoms.

Listen to The Leader: Coronavirus Daily podcast

Some 43,453 tests were carried out across the UK on Monday.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in