Frontline NHS staff feature in Rochdale’s Covid-19 campaign

Littleborough nurse Alex Brook will be seen on outdoor advertising

A new Covid-19 communications campaign featuring local frontline medical staff is being rolled out by Rochdale Borough Council. 

New advertising encouraging vaccine take-up, fast testing and reminding residents about the continued importance of stopping the spread of coronavirus includes close-up photographs of ten NHS staff who work in the borough.

The campaign, which also thanks residents for all they are doing to help during the pandemic began this month and is being featured on outdoor billboards, leaflets, social media, online as well as in community magazine and newspaper advertising. 

Using the ‘it’s up to all of us’ and ‘protecting our borough’ straplines the campaign is a continued bid by the council to maintain awareness about the virus and share important messages.

Doctor Mo Jiva MBE, chair of Rochdale Health Alliance and Middleton GP who features in the campaign and manages part of the Covid-19 vaccination programme, said: “The hard work continues on the vaccine programme with well over 100,000 jabs administered including 90 per cent of over 65s, but we still need to keep following the rules and staying safe. This is more important than ever as restrictions ease. We are heading in the right direction but we’re not there yet.”

Andrea Fallon, director of public health at Rochdale Borough Council said: “We’ve been regularly refreshing our communications over the past year but this is the first time we’ve used the faces of real frontline medical practioners working in vaccination centres, hospitals and health centres here in the borough.  Whilst the growing number of vaccines being carried out gives us much hope, cases still remain high in Rochdale so we must continue to do all we can to protect ourselves, our family and community.

“We’ve seen a lot of messages around how deadly Covid-19 is, but the idea behind this phase of the campaign is to use more positive messages alongside local people who the public know and trust.”

To find out more about the latest measures and the support available visit www.rochdale.gov.uk/coronavirus