Friday, March 29, 2024

6,000 receive COVID text in health glitch

The Ministry of Health is responding to a system glitch that saw 6,000 people incorrectly advised via text message that they had contracted COVID-19 a second time.

The Ministry says an uploading error on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning meant that some members of the public who had previously been advised of a positive COVID-19 test result, received a duplicate of the initial notification message.

“These personalised texts were received by people who tested positive within the last 10 days duplicating advice they had already received,” the Ministry said in a statement today.

“The duplicate text again told the recipient they’d tested positive for COVID-19 and gave the standard advice about isolating, asking them to fill in the contact tracing form and where to find information, support, and healthcare advice.

“Our contact tracing team discovered the glitch early on Saturday morning and the error was fixed that day.”

The Ministry has since sent texts to all those affected people to clarify the error, apologise and provide a phone number should they require further information or support.

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