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Almost 16,000 coronavirus cases were not entered into the national computer system used for official figures due to a technical glitch, says Public Health England.
Some of the unreported cases were later added to Saturday’s figure of 12,872 new cases and Sunday’s figure of 22,961.
He said that all cases “received the Covid-19 test result as normal.”
BBC health editor Hugh Pym said that meant contacts of those who tested positive had not been addressed.
Public Health England said the cases were omitted from daily reports between September 25 and October 2.
He added that the IT issue had been resolved and all cases had been submitted to the test and trace system.
Labor’s shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “This is chaotic and people across the country will be understandably alarmed.”
“(Health Secretary) Matt Hancock should come to the House of Commons on Monday to explain what the hell has happened, what impact it has had on our ability to contain this virus and what he plans to do to correct the testing and tracking.”
Earlier, Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that there could be “potholes until Christmas” and beyond as the UK grapples with the coronavirus.
Speaking to the BBC’s Andrew Marr, the prime minister said there was “hope” in beating Covid, and called on the public to “act fearlessly but with common sense.”
At a time when the testing system has come under intense scrutiny after reports of delays and a system struggling to keep up with demand, the latest revelation could not have come at a more uncomfortable time for the government of Westminster.
Because the nearly 16,000 additional positive test results had not been entered into the testing and tracing system, their recent contacts were not immediately followed up.
Experts advise that the ideal is to locate contacts within 48 hours.
Officials say the technical issue, which is believed to be IT-related, has been resolved and all new cases are in addition to totals reported over the weekend.
But all this is unlikely to improve public confidence in the testing system in England.
And it muddies the waters for policy makers and officials trying to track the spread of the virus in what the prime minister has called a “critical moment.”
On Sunday, a note on the government’s coronavirus dashboard read: “Cases by publication date for October 3-4 include an additional 15,841 cases with sample dates between September 25 and October 2; for therefore they are artificially high for England and the UK. “
Public Health England Acting Executive Director Michael Brodie said a “technical issue” was identified overnight on Friday, October 2 in the data upload process transferring Covid-19 positive lab results to panels of reports.
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“After a quick investigation, we have identified that 15,841 cases between September 25 and October 2 were not included in the daily reported Covid-19 cases. Most of these cases occurred in the most recent days,” he said.
“Each of these cases received the Covid-19 test result as normal and all those who tested positive were advised to isolate themselves.”
He said they worked with NHS Test and Trace to “quickly resolve the issue and transferred all pending cases immediately to the NHS Test and Trace contact tracing system.”
“We fully understand the concern this may cause and more robust measures have been put in place as a result,” he said.
Test and Trace and Public Health England joint medical advisor Susan Hopkins added that “a comprehensive public health risk assessment was carried out to ensure that outstanding cases were prioritized for contact tracing effectively” .
A spokesperson for the Department of Health previously said that the problem had not affected the people who received the test results and that all those who tested positive had been reported in the usual way.
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