AS we near a whole year since the pandemic began to affect all our lives, I would again like to thank the people of Worcester for all the sacrifices that are continuing to be made during this lockdown as we get the spread of coronavirus under control.

Through your combined efforts we have seen case numbers across Worcestershire fall, over the past few weeks. However, hospitals across the county remain under significant pressure and I urge all residents to continue to follow the Government guidelines on Covid-19 as we look to get back to normal as soon as is safe to do so.

I appreciate that there are frustrations around these restrictions to our normal way of life, but there are positive signs that we have brighter days lying ahead.

It was a pleasure to join volunteers at Worcestershire Royal Hospital, delivering items to wards for patients from their loved ones and there are plenty of opportunities for people, especially younger people, in the low-risk categories to get involved, give back to the community and help our NHS. It was great to meet an A-level student who was helping out and gaining valuable experience for her application to study healthcare.

I am pleased with the expansion of community testing, which has increased across Worcestershire to allow 13,000-15,000 people to be tested per week. The cathedral is such an iconic building in Worcester, and I am delighted it is now in use a mass testing centre, taking a key role in response to the pandemic and providing vital reassurance to members of the public. Kitsons Pharmacy is also offering the rapid tests, which provide results within an hour. Broadening testing to identify people without symptoms, will mean finding positive cases more quickly, thus helping to break the chains of transmission.

As well as continuing to increase our testing capacity the vaccine roll-out has been running smoothly in Worcester and we are in a position that nearly 100 per cent of people across the top 4 categories will have been offered a vaccination.

Our plan has always been to vaccinate as many people as possible across the entire United Kingdom as quickly as we can, and this progress represents a big step forward to achieving this. Nationally we have one of the highest vaccination rates in the world and by far the highest in Europe, so it is good to see our area outperforming even this strong level.

The Government has now advised that anyone aged 70 and over who has not yet been vaccinated against Covid and who would like to be are being asked to contact the NHS via their to doctor arrange a jab. In addition to the many GP surgeries offering them the mass vaccination centre at St Peter’s Baptist church is fully up and running.

Despite the pandemic, work continues to go on behind the scenes to improve our community. The Towns Fund bid has gone to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government and I was delighted with the projects that we have been able to put together for the bid.

Having served on the board which identified these I have sent a strong letter of support and will be lobbying colleagues to approve the whole £28 million package. I am really pleased that the cross party, cross community group that were brought together to work on the Towns Fund have delivered such a strong portfolio of projects, that will deliver benefits across our city.

Along with initiatives to improve our connectivity and active travel, I believe that the plans for Shrub Hill and for the Severn Campus have the potential to support economic benefits even wider than Worcester itself.

I have also held a series of meetings with local secondary school heads to discuss the support available to them and the challenges they are facing, and I will be holding a Q&A with A-level politics students to discuss a number of topics.

The rise of remote learning has come with its challenges and I am in awe of the efforts of teachers and parents to keep students engaged and progressing in their studies, but as the parent of a lively two-year-old I cannot guarantee that any of my Zoom calls or meetings will not get crashed!