Britain’s daily coronavirus death toll exceeded 1 000 nine times in April, according to an official recount that took the UK to third in the global COVID-19 fatality table with more than 26 000 victims.

Ministers yesterday added 3 811 more deaths onto the tally, after including fatalities in care homes or people who their own houses for the first time amid growing pressure to reveal the true scale of the crisis. Officials had only included hospital deaths since the first death was recorded at the start of March.

But top statisticians argued the revised toll was still thousands short, telling MailOnline the truth was „at least as much again“ and claiming the real number would be 30 000-plus. Only people who tested positive for the virus are included in the new statistics, despite ministers rationing almost all the testing kits to hospitals for the first month of the outbreak.