4,000 Amazon employees in UK given wrong COVID test result due to 'system error': Report

Nearly 4,000 Amazon employees in the United Kingdom were reportedly given fake positive results for coronavirus and were asked to self-isolate. According to the BBC, Amazon UK has been using PCR tests to check its employees for coronavirus since autumn last year and the company shares the result with NHS Test and Trace every day. Earlier this week, 3,853 employees received a message from the NHS app asking them to self-isolate, but they were told by Amazon the day before that they were negative for the virus. 

The Amazon employees were mistakenly told they had tested positive, whereas they had all tested negative for coronavirus. One test and trace call center received more than 500 calls from employees. One warehouse worker informed that they were told they were negative for COVID-19 by their employee and then wrongly notified that they were positive by NHS Test and Trace and told to self-isolate for 10 days. 

Following the notification, Amazon said that it followed NHS instructions and all workers had been aware of the error and supported to take “appropriate action steps”. As per reports, the Department for Health and Social care said that all employees wrongly issued self-isolation notifications were “rapidly” informed they did not need to. A follow-up message from contact tracers confirming a “system error” was also sent the same evening. 

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‘System error’ affects families of employees 

While speaking to BBC, a call center employee, working for a private company on behalf of test and trace, reportedly said that the error led to thousands of confused Amazon employees contacting the 119 helpline. The call handler said that their team alone received more than 500 calls. They said that the “system error” not only affected Amazon’s staff but the families and households of their employees as well. 

The call handler added that partners and children of Amazon staff who were added as contacts told bosses they had to isolate and have lost income. However, Amazon's spokesperson said that working closely with the company, the NHS Test and Trace rapidly notified affected employees to let them know they did not need to isolate. The spokesman added that Amazon has communicated with associates and partners to support them with the appropriate action steps, as instructed by the NHS. 

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