A clerical error has led to a massive spike in Queensland’s number of COVID cases, including infections dating back to last month.
The state recorded 18,678 new cases today, but Queensland Health said they included infections since June 10.
This means that the number of cases in recent weeks has been higher than the reported daily totals, which have been between 8,000 and 9,000 in recent days.
A department spokesman told the ABC the administrative error was due to a backlog of data being loaded into the system, with dates ranging from June 10 to July 23.
The spokesperson said that although some PCR tests were not counted, patients were informed of their positive result.
Of the 18,678 cases, 4,713 were from the last reporting period.
There are 30 people in intensive care units 861 in hospitals.
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