Thanks to all key workers at the end of a challenging year
IT’S been a while since my last column in the Huddersfield Examiner and as they say a week, let alone a month, is a long time in politics.
The really good news is that the PfizerBioNTech Covid vaccine is starting to be rolled out across our area, initially from a hub in Huddersfield but now more locally as more doses are delivered.
The NHS will contact people in the previously announced priority groups, over 80s and care home staff and residents, when it is their turn to receive the vaccine.
There are also now four sites across Kirklees for Mass Community Testing. These are for people with no symptoms. You just turn up, the tests are free and you get the result quickly.
We’ve had the first review of the National Tier Restrictions. I’ve always called for these decisions to be made based on the latest local granular data.
A month ago the case rate in Kirklees was over 500 over 1000,000 and we had the fifth highest rate in the country, but thanks to the National Lockdown and further measures cases have plummeted.
Cases are now well under the national average and at the time of writing this we are now 108th in the council rankings for Covid cases.
The Kirklees Outbreak Board meet every Tuesday evening with fellow Kirklees MPs, council leaders and the local Director of Public Health. We get the latest local data. I also get regular updates from the chief executive of our local NHS Trust.
We have though now seen the emergence of the new variant of the coronavirus and a surge in cases in the London and the South East, which has now gone into a new tier 4.
We can’t be complacent, we must all be careful and remember Hands,
Face, Space. This has been such a challenging year for us all. We still have the Christmas Day bubbles in our area and I’ll be celebrating with my family in the Holme Valley but we’ll be careful and following the three family guidelines.
Thank you to all the community volunteers who have been putting up Christmas lights and Christmas trees to help make our villages and towns look festive. Let’s all please try and support local businesses as best we can in the run up to Christmas.
Me and my partner are buying our presents for each other locally.
As we head into this festive period after an extremely challenging year, thanks to all our wonderful key workers for everything they do for
our community. From our NHS workers, our carers and care home staff, our district nursing teams, our firefighters, our armed forces personnel, delivery drivers, our school teachers and many more, may I just wish you all a very Merry Christmas and I hope you all have a very Happy New Year.
Bring on 2021!