South Glos Post

South Gloucestershire Council says it supports the announcement of England’s latest national lockdown which began today (Tuesday 5th January 2021) and is appealing to residents in the area to make sure they are fully aware of the new rules and ‘Stay home, protect the NHS and save lives’.

Statement issued on behalf of Sara Blackmore, director of public health at South Gloucestershire Council following the news that South Gloucestershire is to remain at the Tier 3 (very high) Covid-19 alert level, while the neighbouring area of Bristol will drop down to Tier 2 from Saturday 19th December 2020.

A pilot programme to test college students who are not showing any symptoms for Covid-19 will begin in South Gloucestershire this week. As part of its measures to help the district move out of the Tier 3 alert level, South Gloucestershire Council is also launching a local contact tracing service.

An open letter from local health and care leaders: As a group of local NHS and care organisations working on your behalf, our focus is now to get services back to their pre-pandemic levels ahead of winter. This won’t be easy – coronavirus has changed the way we run services and how many people we can see in person at any one time.

South Gloucestershire’s first coronavirus community testing facility is set to open on Thursday 1st October at the University of the West of England’s Frenchay Campus. It will provide more capacity for local residents, and also for students at the university.