THOUSANDS of Amazon workers across the UK including in the North-East received the wrong Covid test results at the weekend, it has emerged.

Almost 4,000 employees were wrongly told they had tested positive for coronavirus by the NHS Test and Trace service on Saturday.

It comes as The Northern Echo last night revealed that 'around 100' workers at Amazon Durham had been wrongly sent home to self-isolate at the weekend.

SEE MORE: Confusion as workers at Amazon Durham wrongly told to self-isolate

But it has emerged that 3,853 Amazon workers who tested negative incorrectly received positive test results during the mix-up.

The Department of Health said that NHS Test and Trace "rapidly notified" affected employees, informing them by late afternoon that they no longer needed to self-isolate.

Confirming the figure, a spokesperson said: “NHS Test and Trace has the capacity to process over 700,000 tests a day from more than 800 test centres and mobile units, with the vast majority of people reporting no issues with the process.

“On Saturday, some Amazon staff members who tested negative for Covid-19 received notifications from NHS Test and Trace to say they have tested positive and asking them to self-isolate.

“Working closely with Amazon, NHS Test and Trace rapidly notified affected employees to let them know they did not need to isolate.”

The spokesperson confirmed that no positive Covid cases had been sent negative test results.

Across its sites, Amazon offers all of its workers a voluntary on-site Covid test once per week.

Results are then sent and analysed by NHS laboratories with results processed in the same way as tests are in the community.

But in the North-East, workers from Amazon Durham, near Bowburn, said that the mix-up had caused disruption across the site as a "considerable" number of its workforce had been sent home.

They said that workstations across different departments had to be shut down and cordoned off.

A spokesperson for Amazon said: “We’ve communicated with our associates and partners to support them with the appropriate action steps, as instructed by the NHS.”