The number of deaths from coronavirus in care homes will be published "very shortly", Health Secretary Matt Hancock has promised.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) began collecting data on deaths linked to Covid-19 which occurred in both hospitals and care homes on Thursday, the minister said.
The most recent figures are of 217 care home deaths registered up until April 3, published on Tuesday by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
It comes after a survey for ITV News found more than 40% of care home staff said they were dealing with suspected cases of coronavirus.
A further 28% of those said they were dealing with confirmed cases.
The death figures are published at a lag of several weeks because it relies on death certificates which must be registered and processed, and until now has been the only official source for deaths outside hospitals.
Experts have been calling for care home fatalities to be included in daily updates on deaths in hospitals, amid fears they are going "under the radar".
And earlier this week, the head of Public Health England, Professor Yvonne Doyle, said agencies were working towards producing "much more rapid data, preferably on a daily basis".
Mr Hancock told the Health and Social Care Committee: "I'm concerned about this as well; I asked CQC to make sure that we record the data in care homes specifically, of those who are residents of care homes, whether they die in hospital or in the care home, and they started collecting that data yesterday and it will be published very shortly.
"So I have introduced a new measure that will directly address this question."
Mr Hancock did not specify precisely when, or how often, this data will be published.
The minister also told the committee that the Government has been working with the NHS to reduce the ONS data time lag.
The gap has now been reduced to five days, he said.
He added: "Every death in any setting matters and is an important part of our analysis."
Mr Hancock said he has a "high degree of confidence" that the number and proportion of Covid-19 deaths in care homes is higher than reported.
Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt said: "You talked about the ONS, they say that there have been 217 Covid deaths in care homes to date.
"Now, Scotland thinks a quarter of its Covid deaths are in care homes, France, Italy, Spain think it's about half their Covid deaths in care homes.
"Does it really seem likely to you that less than 2% of our Covid deaths are in care homes?"
Mr Hancock responded: "No, and the figure that you mention is a figure from a couple of weeks back and so I'm absolutely sure that both the number and the proportion are ... I can say with a high degree of confidence that the number and the proportion are higher than that you say and I'll wait for the official statistics to understand it."
