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Dear resident,
As you will know, the Government announced on Monday 4 January that all areas in England are now in a national lockdown, with COVID-19 rates rapidly rising throughout the country.
I’m contacting you with some further information on what these restrictions mean as well as an update on our situation in Kirklees.
Restrictions
In short, the Government’s restrictions mean:
- You must not leave, or be outside of your home, except where necessary and for exercise.
- Schools and colleges are closed except for vulnerable children and the children of critical workers.
- Clinically extremely vulnerable people should shield again
The best way to stay up to date is by visiting our website which we’re updating constantly. Here you can read more about when you can leave your home, which businesses can remain open, support for businesses and more.
Community testing update
We’re keeping community testing open to anyone who is a critical worker and doesn’t have symptoms. This, we hope, will identify any asymptomatic cases amongst those who still need to go out to work in communities to help keep them and their family safe.
We’re encouraging all critical workers – including supermarket workers, early years providers, teachers and anyone else not able to work from home - to get tested weekly at one of four centres across Kirklees. You can view the Government’s website for a list of critical workers.
Visit Kirklees Council’s website for more information, and to find your local community testing centre.
As the aim of lockdown is to make sure that everyone stays at home as much as possible, our four community testing sites are now only open to critical workers.
Since 18 December 2020, we’ve been offering tests for anyone without COVID-19 symptoms at four sites across the borough. Over 20,000 tests have been carried out with more than 300 asymptomatic cases identified. Thank you for playing your part.
If you’re a large employer in Kirklees and are interested in taking up community testing for your critical worker employees, please contact Kirklees Council at community.testing@kirklees.gov.uk
Anyone in Kirklees who has COVID-19 symptoms still needs to arrange a test by calling 119 or going to www.gov.uk/get-coronavirus-test.
Kirklees update
Thanks to your efforts, Kirklees currently has one of the lowest rates of infection in the country. However infection rates, hospital admissions and COVID-19-related deaths are rising rapidly. You can view all COVID-19 data on our online dashboard.
With the speed in which we’ve seen the new variant of the virus spread in other areas, we all need to play our part in preventing our situation from growing in seriousness.
The Government’s new lockdown rules aim to do just that. If we all follow the rules and stay at home unless it’s essential, we will help to prevent the virus from spreading. Please always remember that the basics – such as hand-washing, social-distancing, wearing a face covering and getting tested if you have symptoms – are still a key way we can all play our part.
After all the sacrifices we’ve already made, being back in lockdown will be difficult for so many residents and businesses across Kirklees. This time, however, we have a vaccine that’s being rolled out and there is an end in sight. In the meantime, we all have a part to play in keeping our families and community safe.
The togetherness shown by everyone in Kirklees throughout this pandemic is something we should all be proud of.
Thank you for playing your part.
 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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