Britain records 15 more coronavirus deaths in the preliminary toll with NONE in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland — taking the total number of Covid-19 victims rises to 44,235

Britain today announced 15 more coronavirus deaths in the preliminary toll — taking the total number of victims to 44,235.

Department of Health chiefs have yet to confirm the final daily figure, which is often much higher because it takes into account lab-confirmed fatalities in all settings. 

The early count — which only includes a fraction of the Covid-19 deaths in England — is calculated by adding up the individual updates declared by each of the home naNHS England today posted 15 deaths in hospitals across the country. No Covid-19 fatalities were recorded in any setting in Wales, Northern Ireland or Scotland. 

Britain recorded more than 1,000 daily fatalities during the darkest days of its crisis but the outbreak has slowed drastically in the past month. 

For comparison, only 22 deaths were recorded yesterday — but tolls on Sundays and Mondays are always much lower because of a recording delay at weekends. 

In other coronavirus developments in Britain today:

• Coffee chain Pret a Manger is set to axe 30 stores putting 1,000 jobs at risk as it becomes the latest victim of Britain's High Street coronavirus bloodbath; 
• Most of the 90,000 children on the official coronavirus shielding list will be able to return to normal life over the summer, health officials confirmed;
• A historic market town 15 miles south of Leicester was turned into a 'war zone' after it was invaded by hundreds of people from the locked down city desperate for a night out with friends;
• The coronavirus could have been lying dormant across the world until being 'ignited' by favourable environmental conditions – rather than originating in China, a leading expert claimed.

tionsDepartment of Health figures released yesterday showed 164,000 tests were carried out or posted the day before. The number includes antibody tests for frontline NHS and care workers.

But bosses again refused to say how many people were tested, meaning the exact number of Brits who have been swabbed for the SARS-CoV-2 virus has been a mystery for a month — since May 22.

Health chiefs also reported 516 more cases of Covid-19. Government statistics show the official size of the UK's  outbreak now stands at 285,416 cases. 

But the actual size of the outbreak, which began to spiral out of control in March, is estimated to be in the millions, based on antibody testing data.

The daily death data does not represent how many Covid-19 patients died within the last 24 hours — it is only how many fatalities have been reported and registered with the authorities.

The data does not always match updates provided by the home nations. Department of Health officials work off a different time cut-off, meaning daily updates from Scotland as well as Northern Ireland are always out of sync.

And the count announced by NHS England every afternoon — which only takes into account deaths in hospitals — does not match up with the DH figures because they work off a different recording system.

For instance, some deaths announced by NHS England bosses will have already been counted by the Department of Health, which records fatalities 'as soon as they are available'. 

HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE REALLY DIED OF THE CORONAVIRUS?

Department of Health: 44,220

Department of Health's latest death count for all settings stands at 44,220.

The daily data does not represent how many Covid-19 patients died within the last 24 hours — it is only how many fatalities have been reported and registered with the authorities. 

It also only takes into account patients who tested positive for the virus, as opposed to deaths suspected to be down to the coronavirus.  

National statistical bodies: 54,577

Data compiled by the statistical bodies of each of the home nations show 54,577 people died of either confirmed or suspected Covid-19 across the UK by the end of May.

The Office for National Statistics yesterday confirmed that 49,610 people in England and Wales died with confirmed or suspected Covid-19 by June 19.

The number of coronavirus deaths was 812 by the same day in Northern Ireland, according to the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA).

National Records Scotland — which collects statistics north of the border — said 4,155 people had died across the country by June 22.

Their tallies are always 10 days behind the Department of Health (DH) because they wait until as many fatalities as possible for each date have been counted, to avoid having to revise their statistics.

Excess deaths: 65,223

The total number of excess deaths has now passed 65,000. 

Excess deaths are considered to be an accurate measure of the number of people killed by the pandemic because they include a broader spectrum of victims.

As well as including people who may have died with Covid-19 without ever being tested, the data also shows how many more people died because their medical treatment was postponed, for example, or who didn't or couldn't get to hospital when they were seriously ill.

Data from England and Wales shows there has been an extra 59,324 deaths between March 15 and June 12, as well as 4,924 in Scotland between March 10 and June 22 and 975 in Northern Ireland between March 28 and June 19.