Covid, the UK flop. 15 thousand infections “lost” due to a problem with Excel

LONDON. The latest flop of the government of Boris Johnson in the management of the pandemic in the United Kingdom it would have come because of “Excel”. Yes, the famous computer spreadsheet program, used frequently by many private citizens. Is it possible that an executive “at the forefront of the world”, as the premier often defines it, uses a very common program but for experts unsuitable to manage a gigantic and complicated number of data, in this case those relating to “testing and tracking” against the Coronavirus? Well yes, according to the Daily Mail, and it was another fool. So much so that the British Ministry of Health yesterday, waiting for more powerful means, said that next time it will upload the data not all together, but divided by two.

This technical impediment, apparently due to Excel, is much more serious than it may seem. Because last week, due to this hitch, the Ministry of Health lost over 15 thousand positive cases to Covid19. Not only in the calculation of daily infections, but above all because all the “direct contacts” of these new infected citizens in the meantime have not been contacted by the anti-coronavirus tracing task force. Result: it is very likely, without the “test & trace” filter of the health authorities, that the infection in those days spread even further in the country, because it was undisturbed.

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Deepening

“What the h … is going on?” From Brexit to Covid, the UK seems unrecognizable

by ENRICO FRANCESCHINI
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Not surprisingly, the numbers over the weekend were shocking: 12,872 new cases of Coronavirus on Saturday and even 22,961 on Sunday. In reality, these surveys were inflated precisely by those 15 thousand cases not counted in the previous week and which were then added to the calculation of last weekend. However, the situation did not seem reassuring anyway, because removed the 15 thousand cases in arrears, Saturday and Sunday still counted about 10 thousand new Covid infections a day

Confirmation came today, Monday, with 12,594 new infections, this time with no additions from the previous week, and an “official” all-time UK record on a daily basis. A worrying figure, which could lead to new restrictions or worse to a second lockdown, which however remains the last resort for Johnson who does not want to re-lock the British economy on the “eve” of Brexit on December 31st.

But at least Johnson’s government can be proud of the data of the new anti Covid19 tracking app, very similar to the Italian “Immuni”, made available to citizens only 10 days ago but extremely efficient, with one flaw: it only works on mobile phones not older than 2-3 years. However, it is very efficient, to register in a pub or restaurant you only need a photo of the QR code of the place and after less than two weeks, over 15 million Britons have already downloaded it. An exceptional number, if compared to the 7 million Italians who have downloaded Immuni four months after its launch.

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