Weekly data published today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that at least 13,121 people had died in England and Wales by April 10.
Department of Health statistics had, by that date, announced only 9,288 fatalities - the backdated deaths increased the total by 41.2 per cent. That suggests the death toll of 16,509 confirmed yesterday could in reality be closer to 23,000.
And care homes in England and Wales had recorded the deaths of at least 1,644 residents by April 10 - 10 per cent of all the UK's COVID-19 deaths. Today's update is one of the first real official glimpses of the crisis gripping the care sector.
Fifteen per cent of all people dying with COVID-19 were succumbing to their illness outside of hospitals, the stats showed, revealing the crisis cannot be managed solely by the NHS.
And one in every three people (33.6 per cent) who died of any cause between April 4 and April 10 had coronavirus.
That week, authorities recorded the most deaths for a single week in 20 years, with 18,516 people dying - 8,000 more than average. Around 6,200 of those were officially linked to the coronavirus, suggesting a further 1,800 were indirect 'excess' deaths or COVID-19 sufferers who never got tested.
The record number of fatalities coincides with what now appears to have been the peak of the UK's COVID-19 outbreak on April 8, when NHS hospitals recorded 803 coronavirus patients dying.
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