Introduction

Hi I’m Dr Rupert Suckling, Director for Public Health in Doncaster. 

The clocks went back this weekend, which means it’s time to look ahead to winter.

This time last year we were preparing ourselves for a winter largely focused on managing the threat of Coronavirus within our community.

Due to the incredible vaccination development and roll-out, we’re in a much better situation than we were 12 months ago, but our rates of Covid remain high both locally and nationally. Locally our rates have dipped over the last week to 418.5 per 100,000 for the period 22-28 October, but circulation in the community remains high.

Local COVID data

These relatively high rates also mean we are still seeing too many people needing hospital treatment including ITU. In fact the number of people needing this additional support is the highest we’ve seen since March this year.

The vaccines continue to take the strain and are allowing us to return to normal life, but as the weather gets colder and we mix indoors more, we need to do all we can to contain the spread of the virus as much as possible. That includes:

• getting the covid vaccine (or booster jab if you’ve been invited) and flu jab
• wearing face coverings in busy indoors locations
• trying to ventilate rooms as much as possible if mixing with others
• continuing to maintain personal hygiene such as regular hand washing
• Self-isolating when ill

Whilst Coronavirus is of course a key area of focus in the coming months, it’s important to say that we will be supporting Doncaster and our residents through winter as a whole and not just Covid. We know that other seasonal illnesses together with pent up demand on the health and care service are the big challenge.

Of course there are other incidents that may need responding to too – the flooding in Doncaster which affected so many residents last January and two years ago for instance – but as a council we’re well prepared to support the community during difficult times and we certainly hope for the best in that regard this year.

Winter can be a difficult time for many but we are here to support you through the coming months, whether that is with healthcare advice, financial support or gritting the roads so we can get to work and education safely.

With all this in mind these regular updates will move from being simply Covid-specific to providing important news updates and information on support networks, wellbeing and remaining safe and well throughout this winter.

Hopefully this winter will be a lot more ‘normal’ than the last one, but we can only be sure of that by continuing to make the right choices and keeping the whole community safe.

Let’s keep going and together, we can do it for Doncaster.

Dr Rupert Suckling

Director of Public Health