A long way to go but future is looking brighter – Thank you from PFCC Roger Hirst

Hello, I’m Roger Hirst, your Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner.

 

Like all of you, I was really pleased this week to hear the great news regarding the positive results for a COVID 19 vaccine. While we still have a long way to go the future is looking brighter.

So this week in Essex we also received a letter from the Health Secretary saying that we are in line to be part of the roll out of mass COVID 19 testing which will be a huge game changer in terms of getting on top of this pandemic and getting us back to a state of normal as soon as we can.

Our partners at Essex County Council are considering how this will happen and we will be supporting them on this so we can protect our residents, you, as quickly as we can.

We have also started to see the impact of the good work that you have all been doing both in response to the national lockdown and the decision to go voluntarily into tier two prior to that.

Essex was the only area in the country to make that decision and as such it was a big decision to make, but these early results are starting to show that it is paying dividends and we are now much more likely to be able to move back into a lower tier of restrictions once the national lock down is over.

That hasn’t happened by accident. It is down to all of you following the guidance. It also demonstrates once again what we can achieve when we work together as a county.

It is only by working together that we will get to where we need to be.

Thank you all so much for complying and helping others to comply.

Thank you all and stay safe.