Number of coronavirus cases in NI health trust rises sharply after reporting issued rectified

By Niall Deeney
Published 10th Apr 2020, 17:47 BST
PACEMAKER, BELFAST, 7/4/2020: Testing for Covid 19 of Health service workers began today at the Balmoral MOT Centre on Belfast's Boucher Road. PICTURE BY STEPHEN DAVISONPACEMAKER, BELFAST, 7/4/2020: Testing for Covid 19 of Health service workers began today at the Balmoral MOT Centre on Belfast's Boucher Road. PICTURE BY STEPHEN DAVISON
PACEMAKER, BELFAST, 7/4/2020: Testing for Covid 19 of Health service workers began today at the Balmoral MOT Centre on Belfast's Boucher Road. PICTURE BY STEPHEN DAVISON
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases has shot up in the west of Northern Ireland, after a so-called “reporting issue” was rectified.

Testing data from the Western Trust hadn’t been reported by the Public Health Agency until now, meaning large numbers of positive test results appear to have been overlooked.

SDLP MLA Mark H Durkan told the News Letter the omission was simply down to the Western Trust recording its data on a different type of spreadsheet than that used by the Public Health Agency.

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“The issue, as I understand it, was that the Western Trust was recording its test results using a different type of spreadsheet than the one used by the Public Health Agency,” he said.

The Foyle MLA had expressed concern that “unintentionally downplaying” the number of cases in the west — a region where fewer cases have been recorded even after yesterday’s sharp increase — could “cause people to relax their approach”.

He said: “As elected representatives, we are constantly asking people to follow the Public Health advice and rightly so. However, it is absolutely crucial that this information is accurate and fully up to date.

“We need to ensure the information we put in the public domain is completely accurate. The omission of data from a large trust could also skew the figures across the North.

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“People must continue to treat the coronavirus with the severity it requires. Misleading figures, due to omission, is unhelpful and causes unnecessary confusion.”

He added: “Unintentionally downplaying the number of cases of COVID-19 in the Western Trust area could cause people to relax their approach to this virus and that can prove fatal.”

Asked by the News Letter whether the reason the Western Trust figures had not been included was a difference in the type of spreadsheet used, a spokesperson for the Public Health Agency said: “The Public Health Agency (PHA) has worked closely with the Western Health and Social Care Trust around some of the reporting issues. The reporting issues related to the data platforms that were being used by the respective parties to report into the PHA Surveillance function.”

In Derry City and Strabane, cases jumped from 52 to 77 between Thursday and Friday. In Fermanagh and Omagh, cases increased from 43 to 52 and in the Causeway Coast and Glens area cases rose from 43 to 63.

The total number of confirmed cases rose from 1,477 to 1,589 on Friday.

Related topics:Mark H DurkanWestern TrustNorthern IrelandPeopleSDLP