The United Kingdom’s Covid-19 death toll topped 38,000 as of early May, by far the worst yet reported in Europe, Reuters reports.

Figures published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) for England and Wales brought the United Kingdom’s official death toll to 38,289 as of May 3 — up nearly 6,000 in the space of a week, according to a Reuters tally of death registrations data that also includes Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The data painted a grim picture in care homes, which have been especially hard hit by the virus.

“Care homes are showing the slowest decline, sadly,” ONS statistician Nick Stripe told BBC TV.

“For the first time that I can remember, there were more deaths in total in care homes than there were in hospitals in that week," he said.