Coronavirus: UK records 739 deaths, total deaths hit 27,510
The United Kingdom (UK) has recorded 739 more Coronavirus deaths, taking Britain’s official COVID-19 fatality count to 27,510 as experts warn care home crisis won’t peak for months.
Officials also recorded another 6,000 cases, with 177,000 Britons having now been infected since the crisis began in February – but a lack of testing means potentially millions of cases have been missed.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock revealed the figures, which include fatalities in all settings, in tonight’s Downing Street press conference.
Officials do not provide a daily breakdown of how many COVID-19 deaths occurred in different settings, such as hospitals or care homes.
But at least 352 of the fatalities occurred in hospitals because NHS England reveals new deaths recorded by trusts every afternoon.
Scotland (40), Northern Ireland (18) and Wales (17) all include care home deaths in their daily updates – but their tallies do not necessarily line-up with the official count provided by the Department of Health because of how they are recorded.
Ministers finally caved in to mounting pressure to include COVID-19 fatalities in care homes in the daily updates this week, amid claims thousands of victims were being missed.
The revised count added almost 4,000 more deaths onto the historical toll. But top statisticians warned the recount was still missing thousands of victims because it only includes lab-confirmed cases, despite ministers rationing almost all the testing kits to hospitals for the first month of the outbreak.
Experts today warned the crisis in care homes may not peak for months, saying the industry’s outbreak is a ‘long way behind’.
But at least 352 of the fatalities occurred in hospitals because NHS England reveals new deaths recorded by trusts every afternoon.
Scotland (40), Northern Ireland (18) and Wales (17) all include care home deaths in their daily updates – but their tallies do not necessarily line-up with the official count provided by the Department of Health because of how they are recorded.
Ministers finally caved in to mounting pressure to include COVID-19 fatalities in care homes in the daily updates this week, amid claims thousands of victims were being missed.
The revised count added almost 4,000 more deaths onto the historical toll. But top statisticians warned the recount was still missing thousands of victims because it only includes lab-confirmed cases, despite ministers rationing almost all the testing kits to hospitals for the first month of the outbreak.
Experts today warned the crisis in care homes may not peak for months, saying the industry’s outbreak is a ‘long way behind’.
