Update about Bolton Council's response to the pandemic
Bolton Council’s News Bulletin
Accurate as of 1pm 1 February 2021
Asymptomatic (no symptoms) testing is available for critical workers that can’t work from home
LFD testing aims to identify positive cases in people that don’t have any symptoms to prevent the spread of the virus. Three test sites across Bolton have been set up by the council and its partners that are available for use by critical workers in any local business or service provider.
Businesses are being urged to contact us to register their interest and to enable their staff to take part. This will help to protect your staff, the community and ensure business continuity. Please email boltontesting@bolton.gov.uk to register your interest.
This programme is for people who don’t have any symptoms - if your staff have symptoms or coronavirus, they must not turn up at the asymptomatic test sites, but must book a test through the normal process at www.gov.uk/get-coronavirus-test
For more info please visit www.bolton.gov.uk/testingmanagers
Had the vaccine? Keep following the rules!
As the vaccine rolls out, it’s important that everyone continues to follow the rules.
We don’t yet know if the vaccine prevents transmission – you could potentially still carry and transmit the virus to other vulnerable people, even if you are protected.
Please continue to follow the rules to reduce transmission:
Hands – wash your hands often.
Face – wear a face covering.
Space – stay 2m apart.
Limit contact – do not mix with anybody you do not live with or is not part of your support bubble.
Find out more about the vaccine roll-out.
Looking after your mental wellbeing
Covid-19 has had an impact on people right across the world and it’s important during this time to take care of your mind as well as your body.
Everyone will be reacting in their own way. You might be feeling down, worried or anxious or you might be feeling all these things at once.
Remember, it is ok to feel like this. These are normal reactions to uncertainty and to challenging evets.
The Every Mind Matters website includes help and advice for looking after your mental- wellbeing.
Children’s Mental Health Week 2021 - Express Yourself
From 1-7 February schools, youth groups, organisations and individuals across the UK will take part in Children’s Mental Health Week. This year’s theme is Express Yourself.
Expressing yourself is about finding ways to share feelings, thoughts, or ideas, through creativity. This could be through art, music, writing and poetry, dance and drama, photography and film, and doing activities that make you feel good.
These free resources can be adapted for use in school, for home-schooling, online lessons or independent learning.
Greater Manchester Hate Crime Awareness Week – February 1-7
Next week is Greater Manchester Hate Crime Awareness Week 2021.
The awareness week is an opportunity to bring people together, highlight Greater Manchester’s zero tolerance to hate crime and encourage both victims and witnesses to take a stand and report hate crime.
You can find out more about hate crime and the campaign at Lets End Hate Crime website
National Holocaust Memorial Day – January 27
Bolton Council joined commemorations for National Holocaust Memorial Day on Wednesday (January 27) by lighting up the town hall.
Holocaust Memorial Day remembers the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, alongside the millions of other people killed under Nazi Persecution and in genocides that followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.
January 27 marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp.
Business Grants
A number of business grants are available as part of the ongoing support to businesses affected by coronavirus restrictions.
The council can tell you what types of grants are available, if you’re eligible and deadlines for applications. Some applications are closing within days so don’t delay applying.
Find out more about business grants.
Pharmacy leads mass vaccination site at stadium
A local pharmacy is leading a new vaccination site at the University of Bolton Stadium in Horwich.
This brings welcome additional capacity to the Covid vaccination programme in Bolton.
Hootons Pharmacy, part of the Whittle Pharmacies group and based in Lee Lane, Horwich, is expected to begin vaccinating at the home of Bolton Wanderers Football Club from Thursday, January 28.
When to use 111
NHS 111 can help if you have an urgent medical problem and you’re not sure what to do.
If you need urgent care call 111, they’ll book you in at your local A&E hospital to seen quickly and safely.
Find out more about when to use 111
Are you missing out on Pension Credit?
Older people in Bolton are being urged to top up their weekly income by making sure they claim Pension Credit.
Nearly 5,000 older people in Bolton may not be claiming Pension Credit which they are entitled to - meaning they could be missing out on more than £60 a week in extra financial support.
Bolton awarded £500,000 for COVID Community Champions
Bolton has welcomed £500,000 of government funding to help save lives by sharing accurate and trustworthy information about COVID-19 with the community.
The council and its partners bid for the funding as part of the Community Champions scheme, aimed at the groups most at risk from the virus including older residents, disabled people and people from ethnic minority backgrounds.
Just keep swimming: aquarium celebrates 80th anniversary
Bolton Aquarium celebrated a milestone last week as it turned 80 years old.
Hidden away in the basement of the town's main library and museum, the aquarium is the only one of its kind in Greater Manchester.
Having first opened its doors to the public on 27 January 1941, it’s now home to more than 70 varieties of fish originating from across the globe.
Bolton’s Le Mans Crescent appears in new C4 drama
Watch out for Bolton appearing on the small screen in the next few weeks – with Le Mans Crescent once again featuring in a high-profile TV drama.
Channel Four’s It’s a Sin series began last Friday at 9pm.
Le Mans Crescent doubles up as a street in London in the five-part drama which follows a group of young friends who move to the capital to start a new life.
Staff praised as response hub reaches 300 day milestone
More than 300 days since it first opened, the hardworking council staff behind Bolton’s COIVD-19 Humanitarian Response Hub continue to provide vital support to the local community.
Set up in March last year, the hub is run by staff co-opted from departments across Bolton Council alongside partners and community volunteers.
The hub has helped thousands of Bolton residents including the clinically vulnerable and many others who have needed support during the pandemic.