Tens of thousands of people are being urgently traced — after a technical blunder meant they were not informed they had been in close contact with someone who has Covid — when they should have been told to self-isolate. A technical issue in transferring positive results from laboratories meant almost 16,000 positive cases of the infection were missed. All those who tested positive were informed. But their close contacts were not – and many have not been traced. Many of the cases are in parts of northern England already under local lockdown due to a surge in coronavirus infections. The Health Secretary Matt Hancock told parliament the problems have not yet been resolved and the incident should never have happened. Labour’s health spokesman Jonathan Ashworth said the missing results were “putting lives at risk”. Sophie Raworth presents BBC News at Ten reporting by health editor Hugh Pym and Danny Savage in Leeds.
“Lives at risk” as UK government confirms thousands of Covid cases missed in data blunder – BBC News
