Ministers are facing calls to end the limbo of “indefinite” isolation for 2.5 million people shielding from coronavirus, amid claims that the numbers added to the “extremely vulnerable” list have doubled in some areas in the last week. Labour said it was “deeply alarming” that hundreds of thousands more people had been added to the list of those required to isolate indoors over the last seven weeks, suggesting they were put at risk unnecessarily by initially being missed off. The opposition also called for clarity on how long they would have to put their lives on hold, as government sources said a review of the “extremely clinically vulnerable” status was likely to conclude that many in that group would have to continue to isolate over the summer months. A group of 1.5 million “extremely clinically vulnerable” people in England were initially advised to shield by not leaving their homes for 12 weeks from 23 March until 15 June. This was extended to the “end of June” but the government’s coronavirus recovery plan released on Monday revealed it was now “likely that the government will continue to advise people who are clinically extremely vulnerable to shield beyond June”. The government said this amounted to 2.5 million people across the UK, of whom 2.1 million are in England. Steve Reed, the shadow communities and local government secretary, said there needed to be an explanation about why so many people had initially been left off the list. “The government’s inability to work collaboratively to provide PPE and roll out testing has already put people at risk and now it appears they left vulnerable people in danger because of their disjointed approach to shielding,” he said. “People currently shielding have been led to believe they could be asked to isolate for an indefinite period; they deserve clarity from the government about how long they will have to put their lives on hold.” Labour said it was concerned that vulnerable people were still being left off the list, leading to rises in the number shielding even though the UK is seven weeks into its lockdown. Angela Smith, the Labour leader in the House of Lords, said: “What are the government doing to improve their efforts to identify and notify those in high-risk categories? Local authorities are reporting huge errors. They initially raised their concerns that the numbers seemed too low, but were not asked to contribute their knowledge as data identification was being undertaken centrally. “It now appears that thousands of people were initially missed off, and in some areas local authorities have been told that the numbers of citizens to be shielded have more than doubled in the last week.” GPs claim the process of drawing up and updating the “shielding” list has been complicated. One GP said: “It was a stupid idea for the government to give the public the impression that it would be a simple thing to do – that all doctors had to do was push a button on their computer to find those patients who needed to be on the ‘shielding’ list.” People who did not need to be on the list, for example because they only had a mild form of asthma or hypertension, or recovered many years earlier from a disease such as cancer, were initially included. Conversely, others were excluded, because the extraction and analysis of data from various NHS records systems – some maintained by GPs, others by hospital doctors – failed to correctly identify their extra risk from Covid and thus the need to stay indoors. The list has also risen to 2.5 million because patients not on the original list approached their GP to request to go on it, often because they were scared of contracting Covid as a result of going into work. The government’s review of shielding individuals is being led by the Department of Health and Social Care and will report by the end of next month. A spokesman for the department said: “These claims [of a large jump in numbers] are completely misleading – people are added and removed from the shielding list regularly based on their GP’s clinical judgment, as they are best placed to advise on the needs of their individual patients during this time. “As each day passes we learn more about this virus and its impact on people, and we will continue to do all we can to protect people.” Those currently in the shielding group include people with specific cancers, solid organ transplant recipients, those with severe respiratory conditions, people with certain conditions that suppress the immune system and pregnant women with significant heart disease. The review is likely to produce advice that is more nuanced about which categories of people are facing the greatest risk, advising some they may be able to take more risks and others that they need to be more cautious. The government’s medical advisers are also considering the impact of other risk factors such as how the virus disproportionally affects older people, men, people who are overweight and those with other underlying conditions. It is conducting a separate review of the impact of coronavirus on the death rate for those from minority ethnic backgrounds.