More than 60,000 residents of the Australian state of New South Wales received notifications sent in error about a positive test for COVID-19, the region's Department of Health said Wednesday.

According to the department, text messages recommending immediate action to self-isolate because of a positive test for the coronavirus were sent Monday to 60,700 New South Wales residents due to a technical error that was only noticed the next day. The ministry pointed out they are investigating the reasons why these messages were sent and have already sent all subscribers who received them information about the glitch.

The regional Ministry of Health noted that more than 7 million people have been sent such messages since January 2020, when the first cases of the coronavirus were detected in the country. All of these people had actually been diagnosed with COVID-19 and had received information about quarantine measures and how to obtain and take antiviral medications in SMS notifications from the ministry. The February 20 malfunction was, according to ministry officials, the first in three years.