Recap: I had to travel to UK from US arrival 12 April and I have to return to US 22 April. Test dates & results in last 10 days:
1. “Day 2 test” taken 14 April. Neg PCR result arrived 19 April
2. “Test to release test” taken 17 April. Neg PCR test result arrived 18 April

3. Lateral flow test in hospital 19 April (to visit mum). Neg result 19 April
4. “Fit to fly test” taken 20 April. Neg PCR result arrived 21 April.
5. “Day 8 test” taken 20 April. Still no result as @BioGradLabs are worse than useless

Today (22 April), 45 mins before I leave for airport, I receive a test and trace call “Hello. We are calling about your recent positive test to ask you some contact tracing questions”
Me: What? I haven’t had a positive test!
Her: our records show a positive result on 14 April

Me: But I have documented negative result from that test and more after that! I’m about to leave for the airport! This is wrong!
Her: call xxx number to dispute this result

I call the number given. Explain to person I speak to. He tells me I’m not flying anywhere until I’ve done another test and it’s negative. Him: why are traveling? Me: To go to my home! Him (condescendingly): Well you really shouldn’t be traveling at the moment should you?”

Me: Well my mother is dying!

He repeatedly tells me I can’t fly. I repeatedly tell him there must have been a mix-up and I have lots of negative results. He tells me I can dispute it by sending an email (an email??!!). I ask him for a phone number. He says there is no phone number for disputes.

It goes on and on. Him being condescending telling me I need a “fresh” negative to counteract the supposed positive from 14 April. I keep telling him “so I need one from today IN ADDITION to ones I have from 17 and 20 April?”. And documented neg (not pos!) from 14th of course

Eventually he agrees to speak to his manager. And then tells me that as long as I have a negative result that is after 14 April I can fly after all. After all that stress.

Note this is after several days visiting my terminally ill mother in hospital and helping my 79yo father get the house ready for her to return for palliative care.

Observations on test and trace: they believed I had a positive result from a sample taken on 14 April. My (neg) result from that came five days later. Contact tracing call came EIGHT days after test done. EIGHT!! This is useless. #testandtracefailure

2nd observation: I can only assume a mix-up occurred in the database. If so, this means there is a positive person out there who has not received a contact tracing call. #testandtracefailure

3rd: data mix-up supported by the fact that they thought my name was “Helen Female” indicating a database that could use some cleaning!!

I hope this is the end. Although I will be returning to the UK again over the coming weeks so watch this space....