'Glitch' Blamed For Error That Told 7K Told They Had COVID-19

DAVIDSON, NC — A software "technical glitch" led to more than 7,000 Mecklenburg County residents being told in error told they had tested positive for COVID-19 late last week, according to a top county official.

In Davidson, 280 COVID-19 cases and five deaths were confirmed Tuesday, an increase of five cases confirmed in town since Friday, according to North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

Public health officials warned of what initially was thought to be a text scam targeting county residents claiming to have COVID-19 test results, but was later determined to be a "glitch" in the system.

"Public Health does not send out COVID-19 testing results via text message," county officials said Friday, via Twitter. Later in the day, however, officials said, "These texts were sent due to a technical glitch in the software system that has been addressed by the software provider. No personal information was shared or compromised."

By Monday, officials had more detail about the scale of the glitch.

"As you may be aware we had an issue on Friday when individuals received text messages and emails stating they were positive for COVID and asking that they go to a link to fill out a survey," Dena R. Diorio, Mecklenburg County Manager, told county commissioners in an email Monday.

"The Health Department never provides test results over text or email," she said. "Very quickly we began to work with the vendor to understand the issue and make sure that it did not continue."

By the time the glitch was corrected, at least 6,727 text messages and 541 emails had been sent to individuals who were in the system.

"We then worked with the vendor to send a corrected text/email to all that received the erroneous one," she said, adding, "No personal information was compromised."

According to Health Space, the software company behind the error, the glitch occurred during routine overnight maintenance. "The cause of this issue was identified, and remedied, within 30 minutes of the initial report," said the company's chief executive officer, Silas Garrison. "We apologize for any alarm this caused citizens who were not supposed to be sent an alert or survey."

Labs in North Carolina confirmed at least 1,106 cases of COVID-19 Tuesday, increasing the state's tally to 186,887 known cases. As of Sept. 15, at least 27,237 cases of COVID-19 had been confirmed in Mecklenburg County, according to Mecklenburg County Public Health.