The nation has seen its deadliest week in at least 15 years due to the grim toll of coronavirus.
Official figures show 16,387 deaths were registered in England and Wales in the week to April 3 - 21% of which named coronavirus on the death certificate.
That is the highest ever weekly total since Office for National Statistics (ONS) records began in 2005.
And the grim record is set to be beaten in a week's time, when figures to April 11 are released.
The figure was revealed in weekly data on deaths from the ONS - which are separate to the daily total of deaths from Covid-19 released by the NHS.
Unlike the daily NHS updates, the ONS figures include deaths outside hospital so they are around 15% higher than first thought.
But they also lag far behind other figures in time, only showing deaths registered up to 11 days ago.
The ONS revealed there have been 406 deaths outside hospital since the epidemic began.
That includes 217 in care homes, 136 in private homes and 33 in hospices.
But the real toll of care home deaths is likely to be much higher - because the ONS figures only include deaths registered by April 3.
Deaths that happened by April 3 but were only recorded later are not included. And deaths that happened after April 3 are not included at all.
The 217 deaths in care homes are significantly less than 'about 1,000' which Cabinet minister Therese Coffey estimated earlier today.
Care England chief executive Martin Green today warned the industry is "working a bit blind" without daily figures.
He said: "There are thousands of people sadly who have now shown symptoms and also sadly as well thousands of people who've died".
He called for universal testing and figures from care homes to be collected and released daily, like those in the NHS.
Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey defended the delayed and infrequent care home figures.
She said it was not “currently possible” to get the figures daily like in NHS hospitals but “I’m sure improvements will continue to be made where that is absolutely possible”.
The ONS released a second set of statistics on deaths that occurred up to April 3, but were registered later (up to April 11).
Those figures show the stark increase in Covid-19 deaths across England and Wales.
Overall, ONS figures say 4,117 deaths occurred in the week to April 3 where coronavirus was mentioned on the death certificate.
That was a staggering rise from 1,704 in the week to March 27, 374 in the week to March 20, and just 35 in the week to March 13.
