Care home operator HC-One said that as of Monday there had been 311 deaths from confirmed or suspected Covid-19, with outbreaks in two thirds of its homes.

On the BBC Radio 4 Today programme this morning, HC-One non-executive director Sir David Behan and a former chief executive of the Care Quality Commission, said he thought the official figures for coronavirus in care homes were understating the scale of the problem.

Yesterday Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, said 13.5% of the UK’s care homes had a confirmed case of coronavirus among their residents.

But Sir David said there had been 2,447 cases of either suspected or confirmed Covid-19 with the virus present in 232 of its homes, about two thirds of the total.

The news comes as new research suggests that about half of all coronavirus deaths in some European countries appear to be happening in care homes.