Fury over delay in tracing 'thousands' of contacts exposed to Covid-19 after cases data 'shambles'

Minister unable to say how many close contacts were not contacted because of the technical glitch
Commuters exit Waterloo station in London. It comes as close contacts of coronavirus cases were not contacted because of a technical glitch
PA

A "technical issue" which meant nearly 16,000 coronavirus cases went unrecorded has led to the delay of potentially thousands of people being told to self-isolate after coming into contact with those who tested positive for the virus.

Public Health England (PHE) revealed that a technical glitch resulted in 15,841 infections between September 25 and October 2 being left out of the reported daily coronavirus cases. The total number of lab-confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the UK has now passed 500,000 after 22,961 new cases were confirmed on Sunday.

Every single person who was tested initially had received their test result as normal, with all those testing positive told to self-isolate, said PHE.

But according to reports in the Telegraph, the "stalled" system meant that contacts of tens of thousands of people's close contacts are only being reached now by NHS Test and Trace.

The delay saw contact tracers attempt to hunt down contacts of positive cases, some of which date back 10 days, in the early hours of Sunday morning, reports the Telegraph.

Senior officials insisted the outstanding cases were transferred to NHS Test and Trace “immediately” after the issue was resolved and thanked contact tracers for their “additional efforts” over the weekend to clear the backlog.

Test and Trace and PHE joint medical adviser Susan Hopkins said: “All outstanding cases were immediately transferred to the contact tracing system by 1am on 3 October and a thorough public health risk assessment was undertaken to ensure outstanding cases were prioritised for contact tracing effectively.”

Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey was unable on Monday morning to say how many close contacts of coronavirus cases were not contacted because of the technical glitch.

The Cabinet minister was also unable to say whether those contacts had now been traced following the error that led to almost 16,000 Covid-19 cases going initially unreported.

She told BBC Breakfast: “I’m conscious that PHE had this glitch but they identified it so it is being rectified so we can get those contacts potentially into the system and being contacted as is appropriate and decided by the test and trace regime.

“We can’t change the recent history, PHE will make sure that this sort of error doesn’t happen again but they did pick up this error and I think they’ve acted quickly to rectify it.”

Asked if she knows how many potential close contacts have not been traced, she said: “I’m afraid I just don’t have that information.”

When asked if they have now been contacted, she said: “I know that people who had the initial results have all been contacted, I don’t know the answer to that question.”

Labour's Jonathan Ashworth branded the technical glitch "shambolic".

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The shadow health secretary said: “Matt Hancock should come to the House of Commons on Monday to explain what on earth has happened, what impact it has had on our ability to contain this virus and what he plans to do to fix test and trace.”

Experts raised concerns about what the data blunder might mean going forward when it comes to trusting the accuracy of the coronavirus data being published by the Government.

Professor Graham Medley, an attendee of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, tweeted on Saturday: “Reporting delays play havoc with data streams and make them very difficult to analyse in real time.

“If the delays change or vary by group then they can distort a lot. Wonder what these will do to the R estimates next week”.

Dr Duncan Robertson, an expert in modelling and policy analytics at Loughborough University said it was "an absolute scandal" that individuals will not have had their contacts identified.

"It is also clear that the testing element of NHS Test and Trace is inadequate," he said on Twitter.

"Positivity in some areas of the country have exceeded 15 per cent. The World Health Organisation sets 5 per cent as a threshold above which not enough testing is being performed."

Dr Robertson later told Sky News: "It is important to understand the reason for the delay. If this is a reporting delay, that is bad enough, but if there have been delays in putting these cases into the NHS Test and Trace database, that can have serious implications for spreading the disease."

A Government spokesman said: “We are seeing coronavirus cases rise at a rapid rate across the country and, given how serious this virus is, it is vital everyone plays their part by following the rule of six, washing their hands, practising social distancing and wearing a mask in enclosed spaces.

“As we have shown, we are prepared to take action decisively when it is necessary, and it is of course right to look how we make sure everyone understands and complies with the restrictions that will keep us all safe.”

It comes after leaked Government proposals for a new three-tier lockdown system for England have emerged.

The proposals, seen by the Guardian, detail a traffic light-styled system with the highest alert level 3 including the closure of pubs, a ban on mixing households and restrictions on overnight stays.

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