It's important to take rapid Covid-19 tests twice a week if you don't have symptoms
 Help keep yourself and your loved ones safe from the virus by having twice-weekly lateral flow tests, three to four days apart. Lateral flow testing is a rapid test for Covid-19 and it is free of charge. It is for people without any Covid symptoms.
You should still keep testing, even if you have had one or both doses of the Covid vaccine:
- Drop into one of our community testing sites to take a lateral flow test there, or pick up home test kits - no appointment is necessary. Please note that the last day of operation for our Burghfield testing site will be 29 June. The Hungerford and Newbury mobile testing sites are reducing their operational days from Thursday 1 July onwards. See more information.
- Find out where you can obtain free home test kits near you, including your local pharmacy. Just pop in your town or postcode on this page: https://maps.test-and-trace.nhs.uk/
- Alternatively, you can pick up free home test kits from our Mobile Community Collect option.
- For other ways on how to obtain free home test kits, please visit our community testing page.
If you have Covid symptoms you must book a Covid PCR test by calling 119 or visiting www.gov.uk/get-coronavirus-test.
 In today's Weeknotes, Council Leader Lynne Doherty and Chief Executive Nick Carter talk about our continued focus on controlling the spread of the coronavirus - including support of the vaccination rollout programme and community testing. They also discuss plans ahead to support the district's recovery. Read more by clicking on the link below.
 Residents of West Berkshire are being invited to review the draft Berkshire West Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2021-2030.
The draft strategy aims to drive positive change to tackle the underlying causes of poor health and wellbeing and support the district's recovery from Covid-19.
The draft strategy sets out how health and social care professionals, together with other partners, will work to improve the health of people living in West Berkshire, Wokingham and Reading over the next ten years.
The proposals focus on addressing the top five priorities identified by respondents from a previous public consultation that ended in February 2021. These priorities are:
- Reduce the differences in health between different groups of people
- Support individuals at high risk of bad health outcomes to live healthy lives
- Help children and families in early years
- Promote good mental health and wellbeing for all children and young people
- Promote good mental health and wellbeing for all adults
The survey is open until midnight, 4 August. Your feedback will help finalise the strategy, which will be published this autumn.
 Our most recent public Local Outbreak Engagement Board meeting was held on Monday, 21 June. Agenda items included the vaccination programme, Covid-19 situation update, Public Protection Partnership and our Covid-related communications activities.
The next public meeting is being held on 5 July at 6pm. See agenda.
 We have launched an engagement survey to those involved with running voluntary and community groups across West Berkshire.
If you run, or help run, a voluntary or community group, we are keen to hear from you. We'd welcome your feedback on the kinds of support your group or organisation would like to be made available and what that support could look like.
The responses will help us to further develop support for our voluntary and community groups and organisations, including as part of the district's recovery from Covid-19.
This six-week engagement is part of the steps laid out in our Communications and Engagement Strategy (2020 – 2023) to support the voluntary sector. This engagement also exemplifies our guiding principle of community co-production in action, whereby we work directly with communities to develop the services they need.
The engagement survey is open to all sizes of voluntary or community group or organisation, whether a national charity operating locally, a smaller charity or community interest company (CIC), or a less formal community group.
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