The decomposing bodies of people who have died of coronavirus alone at home have not been discovered for up to two weeks, doctors say.
Campaigners for the elderly said the revelation highlights how isolated some of the most vulnerable Britons have been during the lockdown, often too scared to visit a hospital or GP.
One doctor said some bodies are being found after neighbours reported foul smells coming from their homes. Dr Mike Osborn, chair of the death investigation committee at the Royal College of Pathologists, told The Guardian: "People have lain undiscovered during the pandemic for seven to 14 days. "I’ve seen plenty of such cases like this, where bodies are decomposed, in the Covid outbreak and also done postmortems in ‘query Covid’