Thousands of Covid-19 cases fall through cracks in UK’s test-and-trace system
Omission raises prospect that scores who had close contact with infected people were not advised to self-isolate
05 October 2020 - 12:09
byAlex Morales
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London — The UK’s under-fire coronavirus test-and-trace system failed to capture more than 15,000 positive tests, piling pressure on Boris Johnson’s government to fix a programme seen as essential to control the epidemic.
Public Health England blamed a “technical issue” for the omission, which raises the prospect that thousands of people who had close contact with Covid-19 cases weren’t advised to self-isolate, risking further spread of the virus. PHE said the 15,841 missed cases date from between Sept. 25 and Oct. 2.
It’s yet another blow to the government, which has faced severe criticism over testing capacity and the failure to deliver results quickly enough to make the test-and-trace system effective. Johnson last week apologised for people’s “bad experiences” with the testing system.
On Sunday, Johnson said the test-and-trace programme needs to improve.
“Of course I’m frustrated with it,” he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show. “It’s not perfect, but it has made a huge difference to our ability to see where the virus is spreading.”
Work and pensions secretary Therese Coffey said on Monday she’s “assured” the glitch has been remedied, while acknowledging the programme must contact “as many people as possible to get them to go into self-isolation”.
“I don’t think there’s anything we can change about history,” Coffey told the BBC. “We can only change how we make sure that these sorts of errors do not happen again in the future.”
Though the test-and-trace system has improved in some areas recently, it’s still falling short on key metrics — particularly the goal of tracing 80% of people who have been in close contact with a confirmed Covid-19 case. Scientists say that’s necessary to lower the coronavirus transmission rate.
In the most recent data, 71.3% of positive cases were reached to request a list of contacts, and of those provided, 71.6% were notified and told to self-isolate.
On the omitted cases, PHE said people received their test results “in the normal way” but they were not uploaded to the tracing system.
“We fully understand the concern this may cause and further robust measures have been put in place as a result,” Michael Brodie, PHE’s interim CEO, said.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
Thousands of Covid-19 cases fall through cracks in UK’s test-and-trace system
Omission raises prospect that scores who had close contact with infected people were not advised to self-isolate
London — The UK’s under-fire coronavirus test-and-trace system failed to capture more than 15,000 positive tests, piling pressure on Boris Johnson’s government to fix a programme seen as essential to control the epidemic.
Public Health England blamed a “technical issue” for the omission, which raises the prospect that thousands of people who had close contact with Covid-19 cases weren’t advised to self-isolate, risking further spread of the virus. PHE said the 15,841 missed cases date from between Sept. 25 and Oct. 2.
It’s yet another blow to the government, which has faced severe criticism over testing capacity and the failure to deliver results quickly enough to make the test-and-trace system effective. Johnson last week apologised for people’s “bad experiences” with the testing system.
On Sunday, Johnson said the test-and-trace programme needs to improve.
“Of course I’m frustrated with it,” he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show. “It’s not perfect, but it has made a huge difference to our ability to see where the virus is spreading.”
Work and pensions secretary Therese Coffey said on Monday she’s “assured” the glitch has been remedied, while acknowledging the programme must contact “as many people as possible to get them to go into self-isolation”.
“I don’t think there’s anything we can change about history,” Coffey told the BBC. “We can only change how we make sure that these sorts of errors do not happen again in the future.”
Though the test-and-trace system has improved in some areas recently, it’s still falling short on key metrics — particularly the goal of tracing 80% of people who have been in close contact with a confirmed Covid-19 case. Scientists say that’s necessary to lower the coronavirus transmission rate.
In the most recent data, 71.3% of positive cases were reached to request a list of contacts, and of those provided, 71.6% were notified and told to self-isolate.
On the omitted cases, PHE said people received their test results “in the normal way” but they were not uploaded to the tracing system.
“We fully understand the concern this may cause and further robust measures have been put in place as a result,” Michael Brodie, PHE’s interim CEO, said.
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