iTnews

File format fail behind England's COVID case underreporting

By Juha Saarinen on Oct 6, 2020 11:16AM
File format fail behind England's COVID case underreporting

Health agency developers used old Excel .XLS files.

Developers picking a more than 30-year-old file format to store COVID test result data was behind the underreporting of almost 16,000 cases in England, it has emerged.

The missed cases were not discovered until Friday last week.

Public Health England (PHE) collected data from commercial firms that analysed the swab results to see who tested positive or not, and receved the information in files with the values separated by commas.

Using comma separated values (CSV) in files is common practice for handling data.

PHE loaded the files into Microsoft Excel spreadsheet templates to be entered into a central system used for government contact tracing and reporting dashboards.

However, the PHE developers used the original binary .XLS file format for Excel which first appeared in 1987.

Unlike the Open Office extended markup language based .XLSX format that was introduced in 2007, .XLS can only store 65,536 rows and 256 columns.

By comparison, the newer .XLSX and .XLSM formats can handle 1,048,576 rows and 16,384 columns.

BBC reported that thanks to the old file format being used, each Excel template was limited to recording around 1400 cases. 

Any further cases than that were ignored by template, and led to 15,841 going unreported between September 25 and October 2 which may have led to people being unaware of COVID-19 exposure in that time.

A temporary workaround that splits files into smaller ones has now been put into place to avoid hitting the .XLS limits and cases being dropped.

As of writing, it is not clear if PHE intends to continue using Excel or to move to a different data processing system.

Got a news tip for our journalists? Share it with us anonymously here.
Copyright © iTnews.com.au . All rights reserved.
Tags:
covid19excelmicrosoftpublic health englandsoftwareukunited kingdom

Partner Content

Alienated from your own data? You’re not alone
Promoted Content Alienated from your own data? You’re not alone
Avoiding CAPEX by making on-premise IT more cloud-like
Promoted Content Avoiding CAPEX by making on-premise IT more cloud-like
Don't miss Australia’s premiere IoT Conference on 9th June
Promoted Content Don't miss Australia’s premiere IoT Conference on 9th June
5 essential digital transformation ideas
Promoted Content 5 essential digital transformation ideas

Sponsored Whitepapers

Planning before the breach: You can’t protect what you can’t see
Planning before the breach: You can’t protect what you can’t see
Beyond FTP: Securing and Managing File Transfers
Beyond FTP: Securing and Managing File Transfers
NextGen Security Operations: A Roadmap for the Future
NextGen Security Operations: A Roadmap for the Future
Video: Watch Juniper talk about its Aston Martin partnership
Video: Watch Juniper talk about its Aston Martin partnership
Don’t pay the ransom: A three-step guide to ransomware protection
Don’t pay the ransom: A three-step guide to ransomware protection

Events

  • iTnews Benchmark Awards 2022 - Finalist Showcase
  • IoT Impact Conference
  • Cyber Security for Government Summit
By Juha Saarinen
Oct 6 2020
11:16AM
0 Comments

Related Articles

  • Microsoft beats revenue estimates on cloud strength
  • Microsoft pushes patch for exploited flaw in on-prem Exchange
  • Edtech vendors invaded student privacy: Human Rights Watch
  • Heroku hackers got account passwords via OAuth token theft
Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn Share on Whatsapp Email A Friend

Most Read Articles

NBN Co sizes up six-figure customer exodus a year to fixed wireless

NBN Co sizes up six-figure customer exodus a year to fixed wireless

NBN Co to cut 160 applications under $200m IT simplification

NBN Co to cut 160 applications under $200m IT simplification

NBN Co's 250Mbps and gigabit growth is finally clear

NBN Co's 250Mbps and gigabit growth is finally clear

What to expect from the incoming Labor government

What to expect from the incoming Labor government

Digital Nation

Why do DeFi and DAOs matter to business?
Why do DeFi and DAOs matter to business?
COVER STORY: Data and IoT set digital agriculture on a sustainable future
COVER STORY: Data and IoT set digital agriculture on a sustainable future
Lendlease launches its own metaverse in Milan
Lendlease launches its own metaverse in Milan
COVER STORY: A Year in the Metaverse
COVER STORY: A Year in the Metaverse
CTO Juergen Mueller offers a glimpse into SAP's metaverse play
CTO Juergen Mueller offers a glimpse into SAP's metaverse play
All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in any form without prior authorisation.
Your use of this website constitutes acceptance of nextmedia's Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.