Matt Hancock to give coronavirus statement today as Covid-19 cases soar in Sheffield

The problem has led to a delay in efforts by NHS Test and Trace to find the contacts of those who tested positive for the virus, in some cases by around a week.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson was unable to say on Monday morning how many contacts of positive coronavirus cases had been missed.

Analysis by the PA news agency shows that Manchester now has the highest rate in England, with 2,740 cases recorded in the seven days to October 1 – the equivalent of 495.6 cases per 100,000 people, up from 223.2 in the previous week.

Liverpool has the second highest rate, up from 287.1 to 456.4, with 2,273 new cases and Knowsley in Merseyside is in third place, up from 300.3 to 452.1, with 682 new cases.

The analysis, based on Public Health England data published on Sunday night, also shows sharp rises in Newcastle upon Tyne, Nottingham, Leeds and and Sheffield

It comes as scientists raised concerns that potentially thousands of people who are contacts of those with Covid-19 may have spread the virus in the last week.

The issue occurred when people who tested positive were not recorded once a master Excel spreadsheet reached its maximum size.

Public Health England (PHE) said the technical issue resulted in 15,841 cases between September 25 and October 2 being left out of the reported daily coronavirus cases.

It said the outstanding cases were transferred to NHS Test and Trace “immediately” after the issue was noted and all cases were passed on to tracers by 1am on Saturday.

Dr Duncan Robertson, lecturer in management sciences and analytics at Loughborough University and fellow of St Catherine’s College, Oxford, said the error was “an absolute scandal”.

He tweeted: “These individuals will not have had their contacts identified and those contacts may have become infectious and may have been spreading the virus.”

Paul Hunter, professor of health protection at the University of East Anglia, said “there will be occasional glitches” in a system this size, but added: “I think the thing that surprised me was the size of it – almost 16,000 results going missing over the course of a week is quite alarming I think.”

Prof Hunter told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “If you’re going to do your contact tracing, there is a very short time frame in which you can do it effectively.

“And the reason is that we know now that this infection is most infectious at around the time people develop symptoms – so very early on in the illness – and if you’re going to therefore identify contacts… it really needs to be done within a matter of a day or so if you’re going to actually have any effect.”

Health Secretary Matt Hancock is to make a Commons statement on Monday afternoon on the issue.