Government failures contribute to spike in local Covid19 cases

A document seen by the BBC shows that a failure of the government's Test and Trace system contributed to the recent spike in local Covid19 cases in Blackburn with Darwen, particularly those associated with the "Indian Variant". For 3 weeks in April and May the local authority did not receive full details of those testing positive. This meant they could not be followed up by local officials. In Blackburn with Darwen this involved almost 300 people.

Local Liberal Democrat spokesperson said, "This is a serious failure and the government can't write it off as a minor glitch. If we are to keep on top of the situation it requires all parts of the system to work together."