There is much positive news on our fight against the pandemic, vaccination is happening apace and we thank all those working to deliver that protection.

Further, due to all your hard work in sticking to the rules, our rates of infection in North Somerset have peaked and are beginning to fall too.

However, probably because of the more infectious variant, the rate of this fall is still quite slow.

Getting that infection rate down is key to taking pressures off our NHS until we can get much higher immunity into our population via vaccination.

So, it is very likely that Covid-related restrictions will be here for some time and it is our job to help our residents.

Amongst everything our officers are doing already, we have funding to support business and a dedicated team for enquiries from businesses. Please call 01934 888 114 or email businessgrants@n-somerset.gov.uk if you need advice on the business grants available.

We have now opened our second Covid-19 LFD fast test centre to try and support those without symptoms but who need to go out to work.

Access to fast tests for people who may be unwittingly spreading Covid, even though they have no symptoms, is another weapon in our arsenal to get case numbers down and ensure that people can isolate when they need to.

Our amazing volunteers and town and parish councils continue to help those in need of support through our North Somerset Together network.

We realise too that juggling life with the restrictions, such as virtual schooling and working from home is extremely hard, we are doing so ourselves!

We can get through this and out the other side, it is going to take longer than we thought, and not without enormous cost, personal and financial, yet we know that continuing to work together and keeping each other safe will make that date sooner.

North Somerset Council leader Don Davies and deputy leader Mike Bell