Thousands of people with coronavirus were not contacted under Scotland’s Test and Protect system, it has emerged.
It amounts to 6% of people who had tested positive since a new system went live in the summer.
Labour MSP Monica Lennon said: “It is horrifying that Test and Protect has failed to contact thousands of people who tested positive for Covid-19.”
The revelation, reported in the Scottish Daily Mail, followed a story which showed that the contact tracing system was performing up to five times worse than previously thought.
A “coding error” led to an overestimation of the number of people traced within 24 hours of a contact testing positive for Covid-19.
Nicola Sturgeon said yesterday: “There has been a coding error going back in terms of how Public Health Scotland have been classifying cases."
The system is now under renewed pressure over figures contained in Public Health Scotland’s latest statistical report.
According to the document, contact tracers were unable to get in touch with 3,512 individuals - 6% of the total.
Similarly, 9,252 contacts who were identified by people with a positive test were unable to be contacted, 4% of the total.
PHS said the figures were a “very small proportion of individuals with a positive test and their contacts”.
It added: “This information is only available for index cases that have been recorded on the Case Management System (CMS).
“The CMS went live on 22 June 2020 with NHS Boards migrating on a phased approach with all Boards using CMS from 21 July 2020.”
A Government spokesman was quoted saying last night: “In a small minority of cases it has not been possible to reach individuals who do not respond, despite repeated attempts by the contact tracing team.”
Lennon added: “This is terrifying, and also means that thousands of close contacts who should have been told to self-isolate remained at large in the community”.
