Interestingly Boris' mouthpiece has a negative spin on things:
Britain's coronavirus death toll bigger than official figures show, experts warn
Until now daily figures have only counted those in hospital, and show growing time lag approaching three weeks in some cases
The UK death toll from coronavirus is likely to be far larger than that shown by official figures, experts have said.
Until now, daily figures – which reveal 1,415 UK deaths so far – have only counted those in hospital, and show a growing time lag approaching three weeks in some cases.
On Tuesday, the Office for National Statistics will release data for England and Wales which should include any death linked by doctors to coronavirus, regardless of where the person died.
Officials are braced for an increase in deaths, but expect a far sharper hike in the coming weeks because even Tuesday's figures have a time lag of 11 days from the point a death is officially registered.
The development comes as the number of people being treated in hospital for coronavirus doubled in less than a week. Sir Simon Stevens, the head of the NHS, said on Monday that more than 9,000 patients are in hospital with Covid-19 – up from 4,300 on Thursday.
Every day, NHS England releases figures showing the number of new deaths and the total number of confirmed deaths reported. But a growing time lag reporting such cases means the new data from the NHS included deaths that date back to March 13.
It comes after an email to staff at King's College Hospital Trust in London disclosed that 31 patients had died from Covid-19 over a six-week period, but that official figures had only recorded 11 of them.
The deputy chief medical officer, Dr Jenny Harries, said there was a time lag in the number of deaths tallied up as officials firm up the numbers and speak to families.
It raises the prospect that Britain could be following the deadly trajectory seen in Italy, which has now seen more than 10,000 deaths.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/03/30/britains-coronavirus-death-toll-bigger-official-figures-show/
Originally Posted by: Brian Gaze