Coronavirus deaths in UK care homes trebled in a WEEK with at least 4,343 dead, shock new figures show

CORONAVIRUS deaths in UK care homes trebled in just a WEEK with more than 4,300 people dead.

Experts today said the total number of people killed by Covid-19 could be 54 per cent higher than reported, with the death toll spiking in homes for the elderly and vulnerable.

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It is now believed the number of people to die with the virus so far in the UK is at least 32,000.

An official slide shown at the Government's daily press briefing this evening reveals a huge rise in care home deaths over the course of just seven days from April 10 to 17.

Chief Scientific Adviser Professor Angela McLean said at the government's evening press briefing: "Deaths from Covid-19 are dominated by those deaths in hospital, but that is not the only location in which such deaths are seen."

OFFICIALS WILL ANNOUNCE DEATHS

It comes as officials announced the number of deaths involving the virus in care homes and other settings will be published daily from tomorrow.

The hospital death toll is already made public each day.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that, in an effort to "bring as much transparency as possible" to the death figures, "from tomorrow we will be publishing not just the number of deaths in hospital each day, but the number of deaths in care homes and the community too".

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"This will add to our understanding of how this virus is spreading day by day, and it will help inform the judgements that we make as we work to keep people safe," he said.

Health organisations have been calling for the numbers outside hospitals to be published every day, while experts on Tuesday said they could not say the peak in care homes has been reached yet.

In the week up to April 17, 3,096 people died in care homes from the virus - treble the week before when 1,043 deaths were registered.

It means a third of all coronavirus deaths in England and Wales are now happening in care homes.

The latest ONS figures showed there were 4,316 deaths outside hospital from the disease up to April 17, the figures found.

Care providers said it is clear the "epicentre of this crisis is in care homes" and that the sector is "sadly the most affected area of society in terms of deaths from Covid-19".

Coronavirus deaths have jumped to more than 21,600 in hospitals after 586 more people died.

Positive cases have also risen by 3,996 to 161,145 as Britain grapples with week six of drastic lockdown measures.

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