Public health report highlights the dedication of the Covid-19 response across the Wakefield district

The board reflected on the strong partnership working that was already in place, which enabled dozens of actions to be taken that helped residents at this time.

In its first report since the pandemic, the board highlighted how this joint approach continues to be highly relevant now.

Wakefield Council and its partners said they are learning from the pandemic to manage and respond to other health protection issues.

Coun Maureen Cummings, cabinet member for communities, poverty and health, said: “A huge thank you to all staff at the council and our partners who led the district through the pandemic.

“We are very proud of how we all worked together and all that was achieved. Together we supported people across our district during this unprecedented crisis.

“It’s also very encouraging to see how learning from Covid has been applied to tackling other health protection issues. This is also helping us to plan for the future.”

The council’s environmental health team played a key role in protecting the district’s health. The report dedicates a feature to its work, covering Covid-19 and other aspects such as community safety, air quality, animal health and food safety.

Coun Jack Hemingway, deputy leader and cabinet member for climate change and environment, said: “During Covid-19 a lot of business were supported by our environmental health team. They provided advice at this hugely challenging time when we had ever-changing regulations.

"This helped to prevent the spread of the virus in our district.”

The report also shows the range of other teams involved in the Covid-19 response, including intelligence, communications, and community engagement.

New teams were set up to support people such as incident management teams, Covid contact tracing and outbreak management.

The report has a focus on how the council and its partners dealt with health protection issues after Covid-19. This includes MPox (formally monkey pox), the 2022 heatwave, Avian flu, and Strep A.

The report will be discussed by cabinet members on Tuesday, September 12.