The concerns I’m getting so far re this massive anomaly/backlog in Covid statistics relates to contact tracing as much as anything else. The ‘computer problem’ the PM referred to this morning appears to have resulted in massive delays in positive cases getting to contact tracers

And particularly local contact tracing teams.

This sounds pretty bad, from the messages I’ve been getting here.

One v well placed local source: ‘Basically it was clear last week the national computer systems weren’t working.’

Another refers to a ‘major test and trace cock-up incoming’ :(

One example I’ve been given is an Oldham case that tested positive earlier in September and took v nearly a fortnight to reach local local teams. Am told there have been well over 15,000 cases stuck in the national system in the last week

DPHs in the NW tonight have been told: ‘IT issue is in the automated process that accumulates Covid 19 positive lab results and passes through into the contact tracing system and also into overall dashboards and data publications.’ 1/

‘The implication is that over the last week a substantial number of positive cases (15,841) have been stalled in the system.’

Two separate people pinpoint Sept 24 as the start of all this.

I don’t understand the underlying cause, but one source has pointed to an ‘algorithm’ failure; I’m not sure I can quite bring myself to compute that, no pun intended. We’ll see.

Final prediction: a lot of university cities and towns are about to see a sudden spike in their figures. Including, possibly especially, Manchester.

And that’s a wrap. Hopefully. /ends