Test and Trace Blunder Sends Britons Wrong Isolation Dates
More than 7,000 Brits got muddled quarantine info thanks to a software glitch in the Test and Trace system, the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) has admitted.
The glitch handed out incorrect start and end dates for self-isolation to contacts of coronavirus positive cases.
Thousands Left Confused by Mixed Messages
- 7,230 people affected nationwide
- Most received updated isolation instructions
- But 2,455 had already finished their quarantine before the correction arrived
The mix-up could have left some carrying on life unaware they should still have been isolating – risking further spread.
Sir Patrick Vallance Defends Grim Covid Death Projections
The government’s chief scientific adviser faced fire from MPs over a bleak model showing up to 4,000 Covid deaths per day at the second wave’s peak.
One MP told Sir Patrick the figures “frightened a lot of people”. The scientist insisted the model was never meant to scare but to paint a possible scenario if nothing was done to tackle the virus.
“I positioned that as a scenario from a couple of weeks ago, based on an assumption to try and get a new reasonable worst-case scenario,” Sir Patrick said. “If that didn’t come across then I regret that.”
He hit back at critics calling the death toll projection outdated, saying, “I don’t think it is fair to say it is discredited.”
