- as scientists warn the number of infected is still too low to establish 'herd immunity' (Oaks SWEDEN is getting weeks away)
- Official figures show 13% of diagnosed coronavirus patients in the UK die
- This is skewed because Britain is only testing the most severely ill patients
- Scientists say only way to work out actual rate is through antibody testing
- Survey in Los Angeles suggested illness may only kill around 0.18 per cent
- Similar death rate found in antibody study in Helsinki, Finland, and Germany
Coronavirus may kill 70 times fewer patients than official UK death figures suggest, studies have shown.
Britain has one of the worst COVID-19 testing records, meaning a frightening 13 per cent of diagnosed patients in the UK die from the disease.
But this is considerably higher than the real death rate because it does not take into account the thousands of infected people who had mild symptoms.
Scientists say the only way to work out the actual rate is to test blood samples of the population for antibodies, which the immune system makes once infected.
While the accuracy of these tests is up for debate, experts agree they give a much clearer indication of who has previously been infected - and are considered key to easing the draconian lockdowns imposed across the world.
Results of one antibody survey in Los Angeles suggested the illness may only kill around 0.18 per cent of coronavirus patients.
It was based on the assumption that the true number of infections in LA was 330,000, far higher than the 7,994 that official figures showed when the study was published on April 20.
This is because tens of thousands of people develop such mild symptoms that they are never tested for the illness.
Applying the same death rate to Britain's coronavirus crisis would suggest that the number of Brits who had caught the virus is in the region of 9.5 m illion - or 14 per cent.
But Government advisers say the true number is likely to be a third of that, and some studies from France suggest it will only get up to 6 per cent in a matter of weeks .
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