AN EXTRA £1.2 million could be injected into the Wokingham Borough Council's testing and vaccination schemes, it was announced yesterday.

The council said it is set to commit the funds to the ongoing campaign, if the decision-making executive agrees to set aside the additional funding in tomorrow's council meeting (January 28).

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The funds would be used to improve testing for key workers and essential staff, support the NHS vaccination roll-out, contribute to providing free school meals, supporting pre-schools, as well as contact tracing and other community organisations in need.

The council also detailed that the funds would also contribute towards tackling other community issues caused by the pandemic, such as fly tipping.

Cllr Charles Margetts, executive member for health, well-being and adult services, said: “We are in a critical stage of the pandemic.

"The number of cases is still alarming high and we need to do all we can to bring them down, which is why contact tracing and testing are vital.

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"We have led a successful contact tracing programme here in the borough and we are now rolling out rapid testing to more and more key workers and vulnerable groups.

"This funding would enable us to go even further to help our community by expanding these initiatives.

“But we also have the all-important hope offered by the vaccination programme and we are determined to help with that in any way we can. We are in regular contact with the NHS and local GPs to offer all the practical help they need.”

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The council received around £9.3 million in emergency Coronavirus funds from the government, however this has not covered the complete cost of the local response.

Cllr John Kaiser, executive member for finance and housing, said: “The funding to be discussed this week is just part of our efforts, because our real commitment is much wider: it is that we will use our strong financial position – the reserves we have judiciously built up and the returns we get from sound investment – to get the borough through this incredibly difficult time.

“We are being flexible in how we do this – we are funding charities to deliver help in their communities, we are working with GPs and the NHS and we are delivering some things – such as contact tracing and rapid testing – ourselves.

"We are also committed to preventing hardship through direct help to those in need, and by helping businesses (both with the national grants available and local discretionary help).

“The pandemic has hit us in other ways, such as fly-tipping, and this extra funding would allow us to put extra funds into tackling those problems as well.”

For more information, visit news.wokingham.gov.uk/extra-million-covid-response-borough/.