Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Paisley in ‘Executive joke’ email gaffe
IAN Paisley was left red-faced this week when he reportedly replied to an email saying he wouldn’t “let any government, least of all the NI executive track and trace me and my movements!”.
The leaked message appears to show the DUP man having replied to more than 300 fellow
MPS with the cheeky comment.
According to a screenshot, the North Antrim politician said he had intended to send the post to a friend.
He wrote: “Dear All, Oops. Was replying in a jocular manner to a friend and obviously sent you all an email by mistake. Of course I support the measures to protect the health of the nation by our government and Ni Executive. Hope you saw the funny side of that.” The email has gone viral on social media with hundreds of people liking and retweeting his gaffe. Mr Paisley told the BBC he did not know the person who sent the original email and was trying to respond to another MP but accidentally replied to everyone in the chain.
THE Government’s contact tracing website crashed on its first day amid staff complaints that it is a “shambles”.
NHS chiefs have warned that crucial parts of the system – key to easing lockdown restrictions – are not operational, amid suspicions it was announced early to deflect attention from the scandal around Dominic Cummings.
The NHS Test and Trace system went live in England from 9am despite reports many of the 25,000 tracers did not finish basic training.
One contact tracer employed by an outsourcing firm told the Mirror it had been a “complete shambles”.
He said: “The only ‘training’ we’ve had is to read about three slides of information.
“There’s not been a single practice call, leaving us unprepared.
RUSHED
“We were given the login details to the system we will be using earlier this morning but the site has constantly crashed whenever we try to use it. It’s so clear that this has been rushed forward, until yesterday’s announcement we were preparing for a start date of June 1 the earliest.”
Sky News reported that one doctor was unable to log into the test and trace website, as it crashed in just “30 seconds”.
Local authorities will eventually work with the test and trace service to ensure testing is deployed to high-risk areas if an outbreak is reported. The Government announced £300million in funding for councils on Friday to develop outbreak control plans to help them achieve this.
But NHS providers chief executive Chris Hopson said: “We’re in the process of building test and trace. There will be a group of contact tracers who will be ready, but there are still very key bits that still need to be built.”
Under the NHS Test and Trace plans, anyone with symptoms will immediately self-isolate and book a test at a testing centre.
Their household should start a 14-day isolation period too. If the test proves negative, everyone comes out of isolation.
However if the test is positive, NHS contact tracers or local public health teams will call, email or send a text asking them to share details of the people they have been in close contact with and places they have visited.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said there are around 5,000 to 7,000