The COVID Diaries – 181 5th October
There has been cross-party anger with the health secretary, Matt Hancock, after it emerged that official figures missed 15,841 positive results due to a “catastrophic” data error.
It is estimated that 50,000 people who were in close contact with someone with coronavirus have been circulating in the community for days when they should have been in quarantine.
About half of the 16,000 missed cases are thought to have been in north-west England, where the added cases saw Manchester’s infection rate double to more than 500 cases per 100,000 people as it became the worst-hit part of the country.