Northamptonshire left crunching the numbers after NHS test and trace blunder

New positive tests hitting highest levels in the county since April
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Northamptonshire's Public Health team have identified "around 70" Covid-19 cases in the county which got lost following an glitch in the NHS computer system.

But revised figures now show the county is seeing more positive tests than when Northampton, Corby and Kettering were all listed as "areas of concern" during August and September with East Northamptonshire and Daventry now districts in the spotlight.

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Last night's latest bulletin (Tuesday) revealed 58 new positive tests in Northamptonshire taking the total to 304 since the IT issue was identified on Friday.

The 70 missing cases have been added in, elevating the daily totals from Saturday onwards.

Northamptonshire's figures remain considerably lower than areas of the north where restrictions have been put in place to prevent households mixing.

But, even allowing for the lost 70 cases, the average of 50-odd new positives a day is the highest in the county since the Government began including swabs taken outside hospitals back in May.

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Public Health England revealed 16,000 positive tests were not included in national daily bulletins nor passed on to Test and Trace teams, allowing them to warn close contacts of those who had tested positive to self-isolate for 14 days and reduce the possibility of passing on the virus.

Boris Johnson promised a world-beating test and trace service. Photo: Getty ImagesBoris Johnson promised a world-beating test and trace service. Photo: Getty Images
Boris Johnson promised a world-beating test and trace service. Photo: Getty Images

Lucy Wightman, the county's Director of Public Health, said: “A national technical issue resulted in around 70 positive cases between September 25 and October 2 not being included in the reported daily Covid-19 figures in Northamptonshire.

"The majority of these cases occurred in most recent days. As reported nationally, this issue was identified late Friday night and we were therefore not aware of the issue at our weekly press conference on Friday but the issue would not have impacted the basis on which decisions about local action were taken last week.

“This issue did not affect people receiving their Covid-19 test results. All people who tested positive have received their Covid-19 test result in the normal way and were advised to self-isolate.

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“NHS Test and Trace and Public Health England have worked to quickly resolve the issue and transferred all outstanding cases immediately into the NHS Test and Trace contact tracing system and our local contact tracing team, and a thorough public health risk assessment was undertaken to ensure outstanding cases were prioritized for contact tracing effectively.

Government figures show how the number of new Covid-19 cases has risen in Northamptonshire. Source: https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/Government figures show how the number of new Covid-19 cases has risen in Northamptonshire. Source: https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/
Government figures show how the number of new Covid-19 cases has risen in Northamptonshire. Source: https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/

“The advice remains the same. If you have tested positive you must self-isolate immediately for at least 10 days from when your symptoms began and we urge everyone who is contacted by NHS Test and Trace to provide details of their recent contacts.”

No information has been been given on which areas the missing 70 cases were from.

East Northamptonshire and Daventry now appear to be the districts causing most concern. The rate of infection in East Northants is now the highest in the county at nearly 70 per 100,000 people while Daventry's is 63 — although it is likely to take another ten days for the recent rise in cases to work their way into the Northamptonshire Public Health team's surveillance report.

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The county council publishes reports each Friday but only includes data up to the previous Friday.

Last week's report showed 16 new cases per 100,000 people in both Daventry and East Northants, but that data was only correct up to September 27.