Happy Easter – celebrate and stay safe

Happy Easter message from the Council’s Chief Executive Denise Park and Blackburn with Darwen’s Director of Public Health Dominic Harrison:

We want to wish everyone in the borough a Happy Easter as we face another festivity under certain restrictions.

Like last year, this Easter we will not be able to celebrate it like we have done in the past.

Easter is a time for friends and families to come together but as we fight to get the virus under control, we are restricted in what we can do.

Covid continues to have a terrible impact on all our lives but through our collective sacrifice there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Restrictions have been eased as part of the Government’s roadmap. But we are still not allowed to mix indoors with people we don’t live with.

Our plea this Easter is to continue to follow the rules.

From this week – starting on Monday, March 29^th – we are now able to relax some coronavirus restrictions a little bit.

This includes being able to meet up outdoors with one other household or following the ‘Rule of 6’, with six people able to meet up outside, while still following social distancing guidelines.

This will be a special time for many people who will be able to meet up and spend time with family, loved ones and friends after months of being apart during the winter lockdown, especially as the weather improves.

The Government has produced a roadmap to show when we might be able to move out of the current restrictions. These are the earliest dates when restrictions can be lifted – but there are several tests which have to be met to do so.

You can find all the information and dates on the GOV.UK website.

Our faith communities have worked tirelessly since the beginning of the pandemic to keep people safe, and we applaud all their efforts.

However, celebrations such as Easter and Ramadan have potential for significant social mixing and therefore an increased risk of Covid-19 transmission – and we urge everyone to continue to follow the government guidance closely.

This is often a period of reflection, reconciliation, renewal and restraint but ultimately celebration within households, or with limited outdoor social mixing, in line with the relaxed restrictions.   Therefore, we must ask people to follow government guidance and protect themselves, their families and friends.

It is so important that we continue to stick to the restrictions and follow the rules. We are seeing an improvement in the number of cases of covid as well as the number of people being treated in hospital – but we must keep this up to make sure we get back to some sort of normality.

This includes wearing face coverings, social distancing and washing our hands and generally doing our bit to get everyone out of this.

There is now light at the end of the tunnel – we are not quite there yet but the future is in our hands. If we keep on doing the right thing we will get there.

We know residents and businesses in the borough are so tired of this pandemic, ongoing restrictions and the devastating impact it has had on our community and economy.

Following these steps will give us all a way back and a future we can all look forward to.