Data glitch 'may have led to more than 1,500 Covid deaths in England'

Public Health England disputes Warwick University economists' findings as misleading'

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An Excel spreadsheet error that wiped nearly 16,000 English Covid cases from national statistics may have led to more than 1,500 preventable deaths, according to a paper from Warwick University.

Cases that were removed from the record due to the spreadsheet error were also not referred to the NHS test-and-trace operation, meaning people who had been exposed to a Covid sufferer were not told to self-isolate.