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An additional 11,000 positive Covid tests in Wales have yet to be counted in official figures because a computer system was down for maintenance.
The anomaly means that the number of cases during the week through December 15 is likely to be roughly double what was originally thought.
Opposition politicians in Wales expressed deep concern, with one calling the news “staggering”.
The situation arose after the Welsh government announced on Wednesday that the number of cases was so alarming that the country was about to enter another blockade. It is not yet clear whether the government was aware of the computer problem when it made the decision.
Currently, the figures registered for the week of December 9 to 15 stand at 11,911. But Public Health Wales (PHW) said the 11,000 cases were lost due to “planned maintenance” of IT systems.
A total of 103,098 people have tested positive in Wales since the Covid crisis began, meaning that the additional 11,000 positives, to be added to the PHW figures as of Thursday, will account for about a tenth of the new total.
The 11,000 additional cases would mean that recent cases of the virus are double what was previously thought.
PHW said the missing results were from tests conducted by the lighthouse labs, which were set up to help address the Covid crisis.
He said the problem was related to the maintenance of the NHS Wales Laboratory Information Management System.
A spokesperson said: “This took place on Friday and Saturday (December 11-12) so that essential service updates could take place. This means that we expect a backlog of results in the coming days, and there will be a data validation and reconciliation period that will affect our daily reporting figures for several days.
“[Thursday’s] The figures and those for the next few days will be higher as a result of the entry into the portfolio. Across Wales [on Thursday] We will report 11,000 new positive cases in the region. The full breakdown by local regions is currently being analyzed and will be available at [Thursday’s] dashboard update.
“We emphasize that this has not affected the people who receive your results, and anyone who tests positive will be contacted by their local authority’s testing, tracking and protection team in the usual way. The provisional data was shared with interested parties. “
Plaid Cymru Health Spokesperson Rhun ap Iorwerth told the BBC: “With positive cases in Wales rising to record highs, it is crucial that the data submission is both timely and robust.
“The public needs a complete and current picture of the situation to realize the seriousness of what we are facing. We need urgent confirmation that the failures have been addressed. “
Welsh Conservative Party politician Andrew RT Davies, the shadow health minister, called the situation “staggering”.
In October, it emerged that nearly 16,000 coronavirus cases went unreported in England and Public Health England blamed an IT bug.
