The number of people who have died after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK has jumped to 26,097, according to updated government figures - up from 21,678 yesterday.
Data from care homes and the wider community has been added into the daily figures, showing an additional 3,811 deaths between 2 March and 28 April.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab announced the new death toll at today's coronavirus press briefing, saying the the government is moving to an 'improved daily reporting system for deaths'.
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This means that 'all settings' are included, 'rather than just those in hospitals'.
Raab added: "Those additional deaths were spread over a period from 2 March to 28 April, so they don't represent a sudden surge in the number of deaths."
Speaking on BBC News before the briefing, the BBC's Health Correspondent Nick Triggle explained why we were expecting a large jump in the number of deaths today.
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He said: "From today we will get the number of deaths in England from the community, and that's of people who have tested positive for the virus and then died - so it will include, crucially, care homes for the first time.
"Yesterday there were 21,600 deaths in total so far. We will expect to see that figure jump because these figures will date back to early March."
Warning that we need to understand the numbers in context, Triggle continued: "They're doing a historical revision of the total number of deaths, so I expect in the briefing later we'll hear about a big jump, but that must be seen in the context that it is over almost two months of deaths in the community.
"But even that may be an under-estimate of the scale of the problem because this is relying on people getting tested and of course in the early days there was a limited amount of testing in the community.
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"But I think the government is trying to give a more accurate picture. It's had some criticism for not having these figures, so I think going forward what it will enable us to do is to have a full picture of exactly how many people are dying."
Yesterday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock also announced that testing will be expanded to all care home residents and staff, regardless of whether they have Covid-19 symptoms. Key workers who have symptoms will also be tested.
He said: "From construction workers to emergency plumbers, from research scientists to those in manufacturing, the expansion of access to testing will protect the most vulnerable and help keep people safe.
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"It's possible because we've expanded capacity for testing thus far."
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