Black Country and Staffordshire Covid-19 rates rise after technical glitch in reporting cases
Coronavirus infection rates have risen across the Black Country and Staffordshire following a technical glitch in reporting cases.
Thousands of cases went unrecorded across the country last week as a result of a computer error. A total of 15,841 additional UK cases with specimen dates between September 25 and Friday have now been added onto the figures.
It has led to figures across the Black Country and Staffordshire rising sharply – when they had been showing signs of levelling off. It is unclear if the added figures are a statistical glitch or if the rising trend will continue.
How have the changes affected my area?
In Wolverhampton the infection rate was 56.2 per 100,000 in the seven days to September 29 but had risen to 62.6 in the seven days up to Friday.
In Dudley the infection rate was 48.5 per 100,000 people in the seven days to September 29, but rose to 59.9.
In Sandwell the infection rate was 85.2 per 100,000 people in the seven days to September 29, but rose to 99.6.
In Walsall the rate rocketed from 65.5 per 100,000 in the seven days to September 29 to 89.6.
In Staffordshire the rate was 35.6 per 100,000 people in the seven days to September 29 but rose to 58.6 .
Birmingham’s rate – the highest in the West Midlands – rose from 109.6 per 100,000 to 126.6.
People in Wolverhampton, Sandwell, Birmingham and Solihull are under extra restrictions banning household gatherings, while ministers are considering tougher measures for the region if rates continue to rise.
Stuart Anderson, Conservative MP for Wolverhampton South West, said: “The latest increase in the rate could be down to the glitch, or it could be an odd outlier.
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“I firmly believe we are making progress. People don’t want stronger lockdown measures and from what I see they are doing all they can to keep the rate down.”
Labour said the glitch had further “undermined confidence” in ministers.
Should we be alarmed at the rise or do we blame it on a data hiccup?
Ministers have left the West Midlands “flying blind” in its attempts to handle the coronavirus pandemic, it was today claimed, after the thousands of cases missed due to a computer error.
It means figures posted last week – which appeared to show a decline in Covid-19 rates in many areas – may have drastically underestimated the scale of the outbreak.
And crucially, the details were not passed on to contact tracers, resulting in a failure to track down people who had been exposed to the virus.
It has led to widespread confusion across the region, with health chiefs and politicians now considering whether the recent stabilisation of cases in some areas was based on dodgy information.
Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey has admitted that the glitch may mean that many more people across the country could have been infected.
But it is not yet known if the upward movement is down purely to the previously missed figures or if they relate to a genuine rise in infections.
Consequences
Pat McFadden, the Shadow City Minister and MP for Wolverhampton South East, said the blunder had “undermined confidence in the degree to which the Government has a grip on this situation”.
“We need timely and accurate numbers to map the spread of the virus and to know whether or not these additional local lockdown measures that have been introduced are needed,” he added.
“Without accurate numbers we are flying blind.
“This matters because there are very real health and economic consequences to what is happening. With our own local area and around a quarter of the country nationwide living under some kind of local restrictions, we need to know exactly what the numbers are if we are to manage this second wave properly and help the economy get back on its feet.”
The rate of infection in parts of the West Midlands appeared to be slowing towards the end of last week, with some of the hardest hit areas including Birmingham, Sandwell and Wolverhampton all showing a decline in case numbers.
That trend appeared to reflect national predictions that we may be approaching the peak of the second wave and that there was hope local lockdown measures were having an effect.
However, the latest available figures show that rates have now increased across the board. It is not known whether the spike is down to the inclusion of the unreported cases.
The rate also increased in Telford and Wrekin, from 37 per 100,000 to 52.9. In Shropshire it rose from 34 per 100,000 in the seven days to last Tuesday, to 52.5 per 100,000 in the seven days to Friday.
Solihull, which alongside Birmingham, Sandwell and Wolverhampton, is currently under extra lockdown restrictions, has seen the rate rise from 78.6 to 94.5.
Delays
Public Health England (PHE) said the outstanding cases were transferred to NHS Test and Trace “immediately” after the issue was resolved and thanked contact tracers for their “additional efforts” over the weekend to clear the backlog quickly.
All cases were passed on to tracers by 1am on Saturday, meaning potential delays of more than a week in contacting thousands of people who were exposed to the virus and telling them to self-isolate.
PHE said every single person who was tested initially had received their test result as normal, with all those testing positive told to self-isolate.
The technical issue also means that daily totals reported on the Government’s coronavirus dashboard over the last week have been lower than the true number.
For example, 4,786 cases which were due to be reported on October 2 were not included in the daily total on the dashboard that day, when the figure was given as 6,968.
The Government’s dashboard said that, as of 9am on Sunday, there had been a further 22,961 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK, taking the total number of cases in the UK to 502,978.
The confusion adds to criticism of the current test and trace system as well as local lockdowns that create piecemeal policies across the country.
Experts say there is scope for cautious optimism in that random surveys of the population appear to show the rate stabilising generally. But areas like the Midlands, North West and North East continue to be of concern.
