Covid: 16,000 Coronavirus cases are missing in daily numbers after an information technology error

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Public Health England said nearly 16,000 cases of coronavirus had not been entered into the national computer system used for official numbers due to a technical glitch.

Then some unreported cases were added to Saturday number 12872 new cases And the Sunday number 22961.

PHE said all cases had “received a Covid-19 test result as normal”.

But this means that there has been a delay in tracking their contacts, who may have been exposed to the virus.

BBC Health Editor Hugh Beam said the weekend’s daily figures “are actually approaching 11,000,” not about 7,000 reported.

According to PHE, daily reports of cases between September 25 and October 2 were missed.

However, it has insisted that the IT problem has been resolved and all cases have now been handed over to the testing and tracking system.

The Labor Party called this anomaly “a disgrace”.

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Meanwhile, the head of the government’s vaccination task force, Kate Bingham, told the Financial Times that less than half of the UK population could be vaccinated against the Corona virus.

“There will be no vaccination for those under the age of 18,” she said. “It is an adult-only vaccine for people over the age of 50, and it focuses on health workers, home care workers and the vulnerable.”

Earlier, Prime Minister Boris Johnson Be warned it might be “bumpy until Christmas” And beyond, where the United Kingdom deals with the Coronavirus.

Speaking to Andrew Marr, the BBC’s Andrew Marr, the prime minister said there was “hope” to overcome Covid and called on the public to “act without fear but with common sense.”

At a time when the testing system is under intense scrutiny after reports of delays and a system struggling to keep up with demand, the latest revelations couldn’t have come at an even more embarrassing moment for the government in Westminster.

Since approximately 16,000 additional positive test results were not entered into the test and trace system, the last contacts were not immediately followed up.

Experts advise that contacts should be tracked perfectly within 48 hours.

Officials say the technical issue – believed to be IT related – has been resolved, with all new cases added to the totals reported over the weekend.

But all this will not improve the public’s confidence in the test system in England.

It also confuses water for policymakers and officials trying to track the spread of the virus in what the prime minister described as a “critical moment”.

On Sunday, the government’s Coronavirus Dashboard said that as of 09:00 GMT, there were another 22,961 laboratory-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK, bringing the total number of cases in the UK to 502,978.

A note on the dashboard said: “Cases by publication date of 3 and 4 October 15,841 include additional cases with sample dates between September 25 and October 2 – and thus artificially high for England and the United Kingdom.”

England’s interim Chief Public Health Officer Michael Brody said an overnight “technical problem” had been identified on Friday, October 2 in the process that transmits positive lab results for Covid-19 to dashboards.

“After a quick investigation, we determined that 15,841 cases between September 25 and October 2 were not included in the daily reported Covid-19 cases. The majority of these cases occurred in recent days,” he said.

“Each of these cases received the result of the Covid-19 test as usual and all those who tested positive were advised to self-isolate.”

He said they worked with NHS Test and Trace to “quickly resolve the issue and promptly transfer all outstanding cases to the NHS Contact Tracing and Testing System”.

“We fully understand the concern this might cause and more robust measures have been taken as a result,” he said.

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“A comprehensive public health risk assessment has been undertaken to ensure that outstanding cases are prioritized for effective contact tracing,” said Susan Hopkins, the joint medical advisor for public health, testing and tracing in England.

PHE said NHS Test and Trace has made sure that there are enough contact tracing tools in place, and is working with local teams to ensure they also have enough resources to be able to contact all cases urgently.

The number of connection attempts increases from 10 to 15 in 96 hours.

“This is shameful and people across the country will be understandably anxious,” said Jonathan Ashworth, Labor’s shadow health minister.

“(Health Minister) Matt Hancock should come to the House of Commons on Monday to explain what happened on the ground, what impact it had on our ability to contain this virus, and what he plans to do to fix testing and tracing.

A spokesperson for the Health Department He previously said that the problem did not affect people receiving test results, All those who tested positive were informed in the normal way.

News of the flaw in the daily count first surfaced late Saturday, when the UK reported more than 10,000 new coronavirus cases for the first time since mass testing began.

The government said the technical issue meant that some cases during the week were not recorded at that time, so they were included in Saturday’s data.

The daily total saw a significant rise from 4,044 on Monday to its highest level at that time at 7,143 on Tuesday. However, over the next four days, the daily total remained flat – between 6,914 and 7,108 – at a time when increases were expected to continue.

Then came the big jump in numbers – a much larger daily increase than at any time in the entire pandemic – which was announced on Saturday, five hours later than usual, and accompanied the government’s explanation.