LONDON (Reuters) – The true extent of Britain’s COVID-19 death toll was more than 40% higher than the government’s daily figures indicated as of April 10, according to data that put the country on track to become among the worst-hit in Europe.
The Office for National Statistics said it recorded 13,121 deaths by April 10 in England and Wales, which account for the vast majority of Britain’s population, compared with 9,288 in the government’s daily toll for those who died in hospital.
The ONS figures include deaths in care homes and hospices as well as in hospitals.
Britain, which scientists say is probably now around the peak of the outbreak, has reported the world’s fifth-highest national death toll from COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
The global death toll from COVID-19 now stands at around 170,000.
The latest hospital death data show 16,509 people with COVID-19 had died across the United Kingdom as of this Sunday.
If these figures underestimate the overall death toll by a similar amount, then the true human cost for t