Race to trace 50k ‘missing’ cases in testing fiasco
COVID contact tracers were last night desperately trying to hunt down tens of thousands of potentially infectious Britons after the full impact of an extraordinary IT blunder was laid bare. Ministers admitted yesterday that officials had managed to get in touch with only half of the 16,000 left off the Government’s daily tally of confirmed virus cases last week. Estimates have suggested these people could have as many as 50,000 potentially infectious contacts needing to be traced and told to isolate. Ministers were yesterday unable to say how many of those had actually been contacted. It means tens of thousands of people could be ‘blissfully unaware’ they are spreading coronavirus. Yesterday, a furious blame game erupted over the IT ‘glitch’ that meant 15,841 positive test results were left off last week’s official daily figures for confirmed Covid cases. Public Health England (PHE) admitted it was to blame for the error itself, which was caused – astonishingly – by an Excel spreadsheet reaching its maximum data size. However, questions were also being asked of the Department of Health, the NHS test-andtrace system and its chief, Dido Harding. The blunder has meant that recorded levels of the virus have suddenly rocketed in parts of the country, with these ‘missing’ cases suddenly added to local tallies. Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Newcastle and Nottingham have all seen huge jumps, in some instances to a rate of 500 cases per 100,000 people. That triggered a fresh round of frenzied speculation
From yesterday’s Mail about tougher local lockdowns yesterday, with the threat of further restrictions later this week.
The row escalated as a further 12,594 confirmed cases of coronavirus were reported yesterday, bringing the total number of cases in the UK to 515,571, while another 19 people lost their lives.
The fiasco – the latest to beset the Government’s corona response – has also damaged confidence in the already beleaguered test-and-trace scheme.
Forced to address the issue in the Commons yesterday, Matt Hancock blamed an outdated PHE computer system for the mishap and said the blunder should never have happened. The Health Secretary admitted the ‘problem’ had been identified as far back as July and was in the process of being replaced.
He told MPs: ‘This incident should never have happened but the team has acted swiftly to minimise its impact, and now it is critical that we work together to put this right and make sure it never happens again.’
Efforts to catch up with contact tracing began first thing on Saturday, with an extra 6,500 hours of personnel time used, MPs were told.
But by yesterday morning, only 51 per cent of cases had been contacted for a second time so their contacts could be located. Mr Hancock insisted the data had not ‘substantially changed’ the chief medical officer’s analysis of how coronavirus was spreading.
Professor Chris Whitty had assessed the updated data and concluded no local lockdowns would need to be reassessed, he added.
But Labour’s shadow health secretary
Jon Ashworth said the situation was ‘beyond shambolic’ and was ‘putting lives at risk’.
Mr Ashworth said: ‘As many as 48,000 contacts not traced and not isolating.
‘ Thousands of people blissfully unaware they’ve been exposed to Covid potentially spreading this deadly virus at a time when hospital admissions are increasing and we’re in the second wave.’
Experts warned it may take weeks to track down those potentially carrying the virus, while the fallout could be felt for months to come.
Rowland Kao, an expert in infectious disease dynamics at Edinburgh University, said technical errors on such systems were ‘always a risk’ and to expect more in future.
He said: ‘While it appears they are now being contacted as a matter of priority, this additional strain on a system already stretched to its limit implies that further delays are likely to occur for other cases where contact tracing is needed.’