Coronavirus lockdown could kill more than 200,000 Brits due to delays to healthcare and an impending recession, a government report shows.
Experts from the Department of Health, the Office for National Statistics, the Actuary's Department and the Home Office fear one million years of life lost in the long term.
They calculated up to 25,000 could die from delays to treatment in the first six months since March 23 and another 185,000 in the medium to long-term.
Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance revealed the existence of the report - published in April - at a science and technology select committee last week.
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It also warns of 500 more suicides in the first wave and up 12,000 per year due to a recession, as well as 20 more deaths before 2021 due to domestic violence.
Over six months, 75 per cent of elective care has been cancelled, without significant re-prioritisation and elective hospital appointments dropped to a quarter the usual in March and April.
It comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson played down the prospect of a second national coronavirus lockdown, saying he did not want to use it any more than Britain's Trident nuclear deterrent.
Mr Johnson said the authorities were getting better at identifying and isolating local outbreaks, although it was important that the power to order national action was held in reserve.
"I can't abandon that tool any more than I would abandon a nuclear deterrent. But it is like a nuclear deterrent, I certainly don't want to use it. And nor do I think we will be in that position again," he told The Sunday Telegraph.
His comments could lead to further tensions between ministers and their scientific experts after Sir Patrick warned there was "a risk" that national measures could be needed as winter approaches.
Cancer Research UK, meanwhile, said 55,500 more people are now waiting to have key cancer tests in England compared to the same point last year.
Figures published by NHS England last week showed that more than half a million patients in England had been waiting more than six weeks for a key diagnostic test in May 2020, after having been referred by a GP.
A total of 571,459 patients were waiting for one of 15 standard tests, including an MRI scan, non-obstetric ultrasound or gastroscopy, which helps diagnose oesophageal and stomach cancer.