What positive changes have you made during the pandemic? 

During the pandemic a lot of people have dug deep to find resilience they didn’t know they had.

Many of us have made positive changes – spending quality time with family, getting outdoors more or learning something new. It's taught us that it’s just as important to look after our wellbeing – and keep doing those positive things – as we move into recovery. 

We’d love you to tell us the best things you’ve done, discovered or learned to keep healthy in mind or body – or both during the pandemic!  We’ll use these to create The Great Big Rotherham To-Do List, to inspire people to carry on the things that keep them happy and well – and to find new ones! 

Visit our website to tell us about the changes you've made and let's inspire our communities with the Great Rotherham to-do-list.

The Covid infection rate in Rotherham continues to fall and currently stands at 54.3 cases per 100,000 population - down from 75.7 last week.

However, this rate is still much higher than the England-average of 23.8 per 100,000 and means Rotherham still has one of the highest infection rates in the country - the 12th highest of more than 300 lower tier local authorities.

Encouragingly, the rate in the over 60’s has also more than halved since last week and is now down to 20.5 per 100,000, but again, this remains more than double the England average of 10.0. 

We continue to see the positive impact the vaccination programme is having in reducing both the number of Covid patients in hospital and transmission rates, but our communities remain vulnerable to the highly infectious nature of the Kent variant.  

So. it's still really important to take care to help reduce the spread amongst family and friends by meeting outside, keeping your distance, wearing masks in indoor spaces and taking the opportunity for regular asymptomatic testing.

If you have returned from abroad, have symptoms or someone in your household does, or you are a contact of a case, it is really important to follow self-isolation advice. 

You can see the latest local, regional and national Covid infection rate data on the Government's website.

A new video from the Department of Health has been published to demonstrate how to take a rapid Covid test at home. 

The test kits are now available widely, free of charge for everyone. As many as one in three people who test positive for Covid are not displaying symptoms, so please consider taking the twice-weekly tests to help protect friends, family and the wider community.

Look out for your postal vote

Local elections are taking place in Rotherham on 6 May. 

Ballot papers for postal voters are now being sent out, so keep your eyes peeled for them coming through your letterbox, if they haven't already - and please return them as soon as you can.  

Please read your ballot papers carefully to see how many candidates you can vote for, as this varies depending on which ward you are voting in.

If ballot papers get lost or damaged, please email your details to electoral.services@rotherham.gov.uk or call 01709 336010 as soon as possible.

Proxy Vote application deadline

If you want to vote but haven’t applied for a postal vote and you are unable to attend the polling station in person, you can apply for a Proxy Vote, which gives consent for a named person to vote on your behalf. Applications for a proxy votes close at 5pm on Tuesday 27 April.

Visit our website for further details.  

The Government is warning businesses to be on their guard against scammers who are sending letters to firms, which appear to be on official Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy headed paper. 

The letters claim that, by law, they need to purchase air purifiers to comply with Covid rules. This is not true. 

Businesses who receive letters like this or are targetted for other online scams are encouraged to report it to Action Fraud.