News article
The Ministry of Health is this evening notifying people who’ve previously reported having COVID-19 of a duplicate text sent due to a computer glitch over the weekend.
An uploading error on Friday afternoon and into Saturday morning meant approximately 6000 people were sent a repeat text messages telling them that they had returned a positive COVID-19 test and needed to isolate.
These personalised texts were received by people who tested positive within the last 10 days duplicating advice they had already received.
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 sent texts to all those affected people to clarify the error, apologise and provide a phone number should they require further information or support.
The phone line will be available this evening until 9 o’clock and again from tomorrow morning.