The Health Secretary, Matt Hancock has praised Darlington’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a video, following the Prime Minister’s roadmap announcement today, the Health Secretary thanked local services in Darlington for doing an ‘amazing job’.
Commenting on the local situation the Health Secretary said: “There is an absolutely first rate vaccine roll out in Darlington and the local Council have done an incredible job with community testing”.
Peter Gibson, MP for Darlington said: “I’m delighted that the Health Secretary has recognised the outstanding efforts being undertaken by our teams in Darlington. The Primary Care Network and Darlington Borough Council have gone above and beyond to ensure that we get the best outcome for communities across the town.
“The fantastic uptake of community tests combined with our first rate vaccination programme has well and truly put Darlington on the map”.
Councillor Kevin Nicholson, Cabinet member for Health & Housing, said: “We’re proud to be recognised by the Health Secretary for our gold standard in community testing. It’s fantastic to see so many people taking tests at one of our six testing sites.
“We were the first town in the North-East to have our mass testing scheme, and we now leading the way in the UK. Our community testing programme interrupts transmission, and helps to drive down our case rates, saves lives and protect our communities”.
To book a test at one of our six community testing sites, please visit: https://www.darlington.gov.uk/testing
You can watch Matt Hancock's video here.