NEW: Public Health England has found 15,841 positive cases that weren& #39;t registered on its data system

As a result, 22,961 have been reported today for England

The graph of cases now looks like this https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="📈" title="Tabelle mit Aufwärtstrend" aria-label="Emoji: Tabelle mit Aufwärtstrend">

What on earth happened? We still don& #39;t know. But *something* went wrong with the computer system on 24 September

This chart showing the build-up of missing cases was sent out to directors of public health in the north-west earlier today

The note sent to directors of public health explains what this means in practical terms.

They& #39;ve been told:

1. This issue does not affect anyone& #39;s results. Everyone who tested positive was informed "in the normal way" and asked to self-isolate

2. The problem with the data had no impact on local lockdowns. The note says:

"This IT issue has no impact on the decisions that were made at GOLD this week regarding local restrictions; if anything it shows that the virus is in an endemic phase and rising."

The real impact is on Test and Trace. None of these positive cases have been contact traced - they& #39;re now dealing with an epic backlog

And that& #39;s actually an impact for everyone. 15k people untraced (and by now it& #39;s probably too late)... not good for containing the outbreak

Important to stress here: Public Health England might be sending out the emails, but this error goes back to Test and Trace. T&T sends the data, PHE reports it – and it never got sent by the Pillar 2 labs

I& #39;m told a Serious Incident was declared yesterday. Serious is the word