More than 13,000 letters meant for people most at risk from coronavirus were sent to WRONG address

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More than 13,000 letters meant for the people most at risk from coronavirus were sent to the WRONG address in a ‘potentially disastrous mistake’

  • Some 75,000 people in Wales identified as at a very high risk from Covid-19 
  • 13,000 letters were sent to the previous addresses of intended recipents
  • Plaid Cymru’s local government spokeswoman Delyth Jewell slammed mistake 
  • Learn more about how to help people impacted by COVID

By Sebastian Murphy-bates For Mailonline

Published: | Updated:

More than 13,000 letters meant for people most at risk from coronavirus were sent to the wrong address in a ‘potentially disastrous mistake’. 

Thousands of letters warning people with underlying health conditions to stay at home during the coronavirus pandemic were sent to the wrong addresses, it is reported.

Some 75,000 people in Wales have been identified as being at very high risk of severe illness from Covid-19 and were advised to stay at home for 12 weeks.

More than 13,000 letters meant for people most at risk from coronavirus were sent to the wrong address in a ‘potentially disastrous mistake’

But 13,000 letters, from Wales’ chief medical officer, went to previous addresses of the intended recipients, the BBC reports.

‘This is a potentially disastrous mistake which could needlessly endanger lives,’ Plaid Cymru’s local government spokeswoman Delyth Jewell told the broadcaster. All the letters have been reissued with the Government blaming a ‘processing error’.

It comes as:

HALF of Welsh hospital’s A&E staff test positive for Covid-19 

Dr Tim Rogerson, who is an A&E consultant at the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport, Wales, described how ‘around ’50 per cent’ of the hospital’s staff had now tested positive for Covid-19 as the nation continues to control the pandemic.

In a video shared by the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board the doctor also revealed that he and his son had tested positive for the virus.

He said: ‘This has obviously happened despite all of the PPE that we’ve got and all the hand washing that we’re doing but it’s probably just a likely thing that’s going to happen when we’re faced with such numbers of patients coming in with coronavirus.’

During his message, the consultant urged the general public to heed the government’s social distancing measures and ‘protect the NHS.’ 

  • Wales has almost double the number of infections per capita, compared with the other home nations outside of England
  • More than one in 600 people have caught the virus in Wales, compared to one in 1,000 in Scotland and Northern Ireland 
  • Wales is testing roughly one in 150 people compared to England, which is screening approximately one in 200 people, and Scotland, which is swabbing one in 175
  • Northern Ireland is testing the most amount of people per capita – with roughly one in 140 people getting a swab
  • Wales’ high infection rate could seem higher than the rest of the UK because the country is testing more people per population
  • Or it may be that Wales is suffering more imported cases from England, which is bearing the brunt of the pandemic in the UK

The letters were meant to be delivered by April 3 and the people eligible for the notifications were are the same group granted priority delivery slots from retailers, which also faced delays.  

A Welsh Government spokeswoman admitted there had been a processing error within NHA Wales Informatics Service.

She confirmed that some of the letters had arrived at a previous address of the intended recipient.

All letters, she added, have been resent to the correct addresses and authorities have directly contacted the people concerned. 

She added: ‘We fully understand the concern this would have caused people and sincerely apologise for the mistake.’