91Èȱ¬

A technical glitch that meant nearly 16,000 cases of coronavirus went unreported has delayed efforts to trace contacts of people who tested positive. Public Health England said 15,841 cases between 25 September and 2 October were left out of the UK daily case figures. They were then added in to reach Saturday's figure of 12,872 new cases and Sunday's 22,961 figure. PHE said all those who tested positive had been informed. But it means others in close contact with them were not. Paul Hunter, professor of health protection at the University of East Anglia, told Martha Kearney "there will be occasional glitches" in a system this size, but added: "I think the thing that surprised me was the size of it - almost 16,000 results going missing over the course of a week is quite alarming I think." With 91Èȱ¬ Health Editor Hugh Pym.

Credit: Press Association