Revealed: Shocking death toll of elderly people in Milton Keynes care homes and sheltered housing schemes

And nine of the victims are believed to be from one care home, which has lost 20 per cent of its residents over the past three or four weeks.

Since the start of the pandemic, 28 people have died in care homes and four have died at city sheltered housing schemes, figures from MK Council have revealed.

Almost all of them were untested but were displaying Covid-19 symptoms.

In many cases doctors are refusing to go into care homes because of the risk of infection, said the source.

"I understand that GPs are not visiting care homes and most older people are not being admitted to hospital. It is being left to care staff to help people who are seriously ill," he said.

Many dedicated staff members are working extra hours to help the residents. Some have even moved in temporarily to the care home to avoid infecting their families at home.

One manager in MK has not left the home for three weeks and is working round the clock to cope with the number of sick residents.

The Citizen's source, who has an influential position at MK Council, is now calling for more public scrutiny into care home deaths, which are not included in the government's official statistics.

"I am concerned that there are people dying in most care homes in MK. At one home nine people have died. There needs to be more public scrutiny of why people are dying in these homes."

He added: "It is not 100 per cent clear if these are Covid-19 deaths. What appears to be the case is that older people in care homes are not being sent to hospital and therefore are not being tested.".

According to Public Health England, 53 people have died at MK hospital after testing positive for Covid-19.

Today's revelation means MK's total death toll could be 85 - and this is still not counting deaths of people living in their own homes.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) yesterday published its own figures for all deaths where Covid-19 is mentioned on the death certificate.

This means people who have passed away in care homes or at their own homes are included, whereas the Public Health England tally only counts patients who have died in a hospital.

Nationally, the ONS data shows there were 6,235 deaths which involved coronavirus up until April 3. This compares to the government's figure of 4,093 deaths in hospitals at the same stage.

Sir David Behan, head of the UK's largest care home operator HC-One, said yesterday during a Radio 4 interview that 311 residents in the company's home had died as a result of, or suspected, Covid-19

"It's present in 232 of our homes which is about two-thirds of the total number of homes that we run,” he said.

The Guardian published an article earlier this week claiming around half of all Covid-19 deaths appear to be happening in care homes in some European countries.

This was based on research from UK-based academics, who are warning that the same effort must be put into fighting the virus in care homes as in the NHS.

Data shows that in Italy, Spain, France, Ireland and Belgium between 42 per cent and 57 per cent of deaths from the virus have been happening in homes, according to a report by academics based at the London School of Economics (LSE).