DATA issues that stopped almost 16,000 coronavirus cases being recorded in England – delaying contact tracing efforts – should never have happened, the Health Secretary has said.
Matt Hancock told MPs that a technical problem over the weekend occurred with the system “that brings together” data from NHS test sites and tests processed by commercial firms.
Public Health England (PHE) told the PA news agency that the issue had been caused by an Excel file maxing out during an automated process.
The issue resulted in 15,841 cases between September 25 and October 2 being left out of figures.
It said files had now been broken down into smaller, multiple files to avoid the issue happening again.
It is understood that data from labs was being pulled into Excel templates by PHE so it could then be uploaded to a central system and made available to NHS Test and Trace.
Hancock said it had been decided in July that the PHE “legacy system” needed an upgrade, with contracts for a new system awarded in August.
He said 51% of people testing positive had now been contacted by the system, telling the Commons: “Contact tracing of these cases began first thing Saturday.
“We brought in 6500 hours of extra contact tracing over the weekend and I can report to the House as of 9am today 51% of the cases have now been contacted a second time for contract tracing purposes.
“I want to reassure the house that outbreak control in care homes, schools and hospitals has not been directly affected because dealing with outbreaks in these settings does not primarily rely on this PHE system.”
Hancock said it was “critical that we work together to fix these issues that were themselves identified by PHE staff working hard late on Friday night.”
He added: “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.”
Regarding the scale of the pandemic, Hancock said the Government’s assessment has “not substantially changed” after the error, which was being investigated fully.
“This morning the Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC) presented to me their updated analysis of the epidemic based on the new figures,” he said.
“The chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, has analysed that our assessment of the disease and its impact has not substantially changed as a result of this data.
“The JBC has confirmed that this has not impacted the basis on which decisions about local action were taken last week. Nevertheless, this is a serious issue that is being investigated fully.”
Analysis by the PA news agency shows that the weekly rate of new Covid-19 cases has soared in dozens of areas of England following the blunder.
Manchester now has the highest rate in England, with 2927 cases recorded in the seven days to October 2 – the equivalent of 529.4 cases per 100,000 people, up from 246.4 in the previous week.
Knowsley in Merseyside has the second highest rate, up from 324.1 to 498.5, with 752 new cases, and Liverpool is in third, up from 306.4 to 487.1, with 2426 new cases.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel