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Dear resident,
I am contacting you as the Director of Public Health for Kirklees, with an important COVID-19 update as we head into the festive period.
The below email covers:
- Kirklees to stay in Tier 3
- We’re urging everyone without symptoms to get tested with community testing launching on 18 December
- You will be contacted when it’s your time to receive the vaccine
- COVID-19 is not having a Christmas break – we must stay safe
Tier update
Today, the Government announced that Kirklees should remain subject to Tier 3 restrictions. It means that restaurants, bars and pubs must stay closed and there are restrictions around meeting and socialising with each other.
People across Kirklees have been playing their part and following the public health advice. Over the past four weeks, our COVID-19 infection rates have dropped significantly. If we keep following the advice, we will regain our freedoms and protect even more people.
Play your part by continuing to do the essentials: social distancing, wearing a face covering, regular hand washing and getting a test if you have symptoms.
Get tested
There is a new way you play your part to protect your community from COVID-19. Tomorrow (Friday 18 December 2020), we are launching a new community testing service, which is open to people who live or work in Kirklees.
Community testing is a quick and easy way to find out if you have the virus. One of the reasons COVID-19 is so hard to control is because many people don’t know that they have it. But people who don’t have symptoms can still pass it on. With your help, we will be able to find more cases and stop people passing it on without knowing.
Four walk-in testing centres will open from tomorrow in Batley, Dewsbury, Huddersfield and Ravensthorpe. The centres are open to every resident of Kirklees who is over the age of eleven and who doesn’t have any symptoms of the virus.
Find out how to get your test at: www.kirklees.gov.uk/covid19communitytesting
Please remember that if you have any symptoms of COVID-19, you should book a test by calling 119 or going to: https://www.gov.uk/get-coronavirus-test.
Vaccination
The first Kirklees residents received the COVID-19 vaccine this week. This is wonderful news and an incredible breakthrough in our efforts to tackle the virus.
Starting with those who are most vulnerable to the infection, the NHS will now gradually deliver vaccines to more people in our community. It is a complicated process and our NHS colleagues will need all our support and patience to do it.
Your GP practice or the national booking system will directly contact people who are eligible for a vaccine when they are ready. Please do not contact your GP to try and book a vaccine.
We will keep you updated as the programme grows.
Play your part this Christmas
It will be several months before vaccines are a major factor in keeping us all safe. It means that this year’s Christmas will be different.
Although restrictions on meeting each other will relax for a few days, the way the virus spreads remains the same. We need to weigh up the dangers of mixing with each other this Christmas because the risk of infection remains high.
This year has been difficult for so many reasons, but the resilience and togetherness everyone in Kirklees has shown has been remarkable. Unfortunately, Christmas won’t be quite the same this year and I know how tough that is going to be.
But I want to leave you with a message of hope as we head into the festive period. For the first time in this pandemic, I can say with confidence that this won’t be forever and there is an end in sight.
I hope you have a safe and happy Christmas. Thank you for everything you are doing for each other.
 Rachel Spencer-Henshall
Director of Public Health, Kirklees Council
Kirklees Council has special permission from the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to email you without consent where this is in the public interest. In this case it is to help protect the public from COVID-19.
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