A further 17 covid cases have been confirmed in the Harrogate district, according to Public Health England figures.

It takes the total number of infections since March to 7,478.

Meanwhile, the district’s seven-day covid rate stands at 39 per 100,000 people. The national average is 58, while the North Yorkshire rate is 48.

No further deaths have been reported at Harrogate District Hospital.

Read more:

• Mobile covid tests launched in rural North Yorkshire
• North Yorkshire health chief: Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is safe

The number of covid patients at the hospital has fallen to 13 – nine fewer than the 22 last week.

In other covid news today, North Yorkshire’s health bosses have insisted that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is safe and urged people to continue to come forward for their jabs when invited.

It was also announced that more than 188,000 people in North Yorkshire have now received their first coronavirus jab and 13,000 their second.

More than 50,000 of those have been delivered at Harrogate’s mass vaccination centre at the Great Yorkshire Showground.

Those who are currently being called up for their vaccine include over 50s and those with underlying health conditions between 16 and 60-years-old.

Harrogate District Hospital’s intensive care unit has completed a £1 million refurbishment.

The 12-week refurbishment has increased capacity, meaning the unit can now care for 11 patients rather than 10, and created a better environment.

Ross Stewart, a patient on the unit for many weeks in 2020 pre-covid, returned today to cut a ribbon before patients were transferred back in.

The unit was stripped down to its shell and rebuilt. Five of the 11 beds now have their own side rooms.

The hospital’s experience of the pandemic shaped the new design. For instance, the side rooms help to contain infections.

The unit has new TVs, flooring, ceilings and doors. Wall cladding and dimmable lights have been installed, and there are wall murals and LED ceiling panels featuring blue skies, clouds and trees in two of the side rooms.

The more open design means nurses can see all the patients from their station.

Daylight, open space and a clean feel are key features of the new design.

The last 12 months have been unprecedented for hospital staff. ICU staff have been caring for numbers never seen before.

Intensive care consultant Dr Sarah Marsh said:

“This has gone above and beyond what we could have expected. It’s not just about surviving it’s about giving that survivorship some quality and the environment in the ICU plays a huge part in that.

“Something as simple as having more natural light and dimmable lights is very important for the patients. The unit will really help to improve patients’ outcomes for sure.”

Read more:

• North Yorkshire health leader says Oxford-AstraZeneca jab is safe.
• New base for Harrogate’s mental health team yet to be found. 

The increase in patients due to covid forced the unit to relocate into a larger ward, which presented the opportunity to refurbish the unit without disturbing patients.

The Harrogate Hospital and Community Charity donated some of the funds for the work, which enabled a relatives’ room to offer a pull-down bed for relatives to stay in.

Rural areas of the Harrogate district could find it easier to get covid tests after North Yorkshire was chosen for a national pilot scheme.

North Yorkshire County Council approached the Department of Health and Social Care to get a mobile unit taking tests to the most sparsely populated areas.

The government agreed, and a van is now travelling from town to town across North Yorkshire, delivering lateral flow testing kits to families.

The service complements the five static testing sites in North Yorkshire, which are in the Dragon Road car park in Harrogate, as well as at sites in Northallerton, Selby, Scarborough, Skipton.

Anyone in a household or bubble, including students and staff at nurseries, schools or colleges is able to pick up a maximum of 14 test kits from the van.

Local health leaders said the county’s rural nature required an innovative response to make sure everyone, including those with limited transport options, could access testing locally.

Dr Victoria Turner, public health consultant at the council, said:

“Around a third of people with covid do not have any symptoms so the aim of regular asymptomatic testing is to help to uncover hidden cases of the virus and stop further transmissions, preventing outbreaks before they occur.”

Read more:

• Harrogate district covid rate drops to lowest level since September. 
• Over 64,000 people received first dose of covid vaccine in Harrogate district. 

The service is not intended for people with symptoms of coronavirus, but by allowing the families of young people in school and education settings to test regularly it is hoped it will help to limit the virus from spreading.

On its first day, in Settle, the van arrived to a queue of 30 people already waiting to receive their tests. Each person is given two boxes of seven test kits.

The unit is stocked with 1,000 boxes for each daily run.

Matthew Robinson, North Yorkshire’s head of resilience and emergencies, said:

“We asked if we could pilot this scheme and we are really delighted to have been given a mobile deployment unit. Wherever that unit is, eligible people can go and get lateral flow tests.”

In Harrogate, the Dragon Road testing site has begun accepting rapid flow tests from school pupils and staff.

Today we are telling the story of Carol Ann Alton who died in her care home in Harrogate last year. Carol died in her sleep after being ill for some time. She did not die of coronavirus but her family were unable to see her due to the restrictions. The family asked us to include her in our tributes on this Mothering Sunday. 

Carol Ann Alton was born August 4, 1945 in Leeds. She died aged 74 on June 30, 2020 in her care home in Harrogate.

Carol was loved dearly by her husband, children and grandchildren.

She grew up in Leeds with her brother, beginning her working life at the Yorkshire Post at 16.

Whilst working there she met her husband, Richard, and the “devoted” pair got married on June 7, 1969 in Pudsey.

Carol Alton on her wedding day.

The pair spent their first few years together in Alwoodley and later welcomed daughter, Tracy, and son, Richard.

Carol changed career paths and started working as a theatre nurse at Leeds General Infirmary. She was a committed nurse and worked long hours whilst looking after her young children.

The family moved to West Sussex for a few years for Richard’s job, but always one to stay busy, Carol found a job in the care home.

Carol gave up work to focus on family life when they moved back up north to Rawdon, Leeds, in 1987. Over the next few years the family enjoyed several holidays abroad.

Tracy has “happy memories” of their times in Florida and Spain.

Her mum was her “best friend” and this bond was never lost. When Tracy was pregnant is 2002 her mum and dad moved to Harrogate to be closer to her.

Carol Alton (centre bottom), her son Richard, husband Richard and daughter Tracy.

Over the next few years, Carol took the role of grandmother in her stride. She loved to cook and bake with her grandchildren and “they loved it too”, said Tracy.

In recent years, Carol’s health deteriorated and after a couple of falls in her home in October 2019 the family were forced to make the difficult decision to move her into a home.

After a few more months in and out of hospital, Carol settled into a home in Harrogate in February 2020.

Carol and Richard had never been apart and the move took a toll on the both of them.

When visits were stopped during lockdown Carol and Richard suffered. Tracy said her mum “lost her fight”.

Carol and Richard on their wedding day in 1969.

In April the pair could see each other through a window but that would be the last time before Carol passed.

Tracy said her mum was her best friend, and although coronavirus was not the cause of death it meant she “lost the last few months of her [mum’s] life”.

Carol was a private woman so her funeral was small, but she was surrounded by all those that loved her.

Coronavirus has stolen something from lots of families but for Tracy, who like many others was “dreading” today, wanted to tell the story of her mum and the “fantastic mum” she was.

Over the weekend, a further 12 cases of coronavirus have been reported in the Harrogate district.

Government data shows that five were reported on Saturday and a further seven today.

One more person has died after testing positive for coronavirus at Harrogate District Hospital. The death was reported on Friday, March 12.

This takes the total number of coronavirus deaths since the start of the pandemic to 176.

Read more:

• Volunteers at Harrogate Hospital Radio are being celebrated after giving 200 combined years of service to the station.
• The NHS has confirmed the Harrogate Nightingale Hospital will return to the HCC in coming months. 

Over recent weeks the number of cases each day is decreasing this has brought down the district’s seven-day case rate too.

The Harrogate district now has a seven-day case rate of 42.9 per 100,000 population which is now below the North Yorkshire average of 45.5.

The Harrogate district is also below the England average which currently sits at 58.3 per 100,000.

Four more patients who tested positive for coronavirus have died at Harrogate District Hospital.

Three of the patients died on Tuesday and the fourth on Wednesday. It takes the hospital’s total number of covid deaths up to 175 since the start of the pandemic, according to NHS data.

The hospital revealed yesterday that it is now caring for 17 coronavirus patients, down from 42 patients the week before.

Since the start of the pandemic it has admitted 800 coronavirus positive patients and discharged 575.

Read more:

• Coronavirus vaccine reaches more than 64,000 in Harrogate district
• Calls for an inquiry into Harrogate Nightingale

Government data also released today shows how the Harrogate district has added just nine more coronavirus cases today, taking that total to 7,428 so far.

Cases have been low in recent weeks which means that the seven-day rate has also come down.

The Harrogate district now has a seven-day case rate of 45 per 100,000 population which slightly above the North Yorkshire average of 42.

However, the Harrogate district is below the England average which currently sits at 58 per 100,000.

Today we look at the life of John Puleikis, in the fifth of a series of articles remembering those lost to coronavirus over the past year. We’d like to thank the families and friends who have been in touch with the Stray Ferret to share precious memories of their loved ones.

John Peter Puleikis was born on November 15, 1943 in Klaipėda in Lithuania. He died aged 77 on November 30, 2020. John was the 100th person to die from coronavirus at Harrogate District Hospital.

John was a much loved husband, father, brother, grandad and friend.

When John was born the country was under Nazi occupation and later, in January 1945 it was invaded by the Russians.

Hundreds of people lost their lives, and John’s parents knew they had to escape to ensure their children’s future. His father went first and then John, his mother and his three siblings fled on foot when he was just two years old.

John’s son recalls his Dad telling him they once stopped by a turnip field to feed his baby brother who later died of starvation.

The family finally found a home in Hull and reunited with their father in 1947.

His good friend, Dev Barber, said John’s early life “shaped him into the most loyal, helpful and friendly man”.

At his funeral, his son said his dad encompassed the Benjamin Franklin saying “out of adversity comes opportunity”.

John Puleikis

After going to school in Leeds, John settled in the city and began working mending sewing machines.

It was there he met his wife, Tricia, and went on to have a son and daughter.

“A family man through and through” John and his family settled in Pateley Bridge and opened a fish shop.

A few years later, the family moved to Knaresborough and opened ‘The Fresh Fish Shop’ in town. He later opened another on Beulah Street in Harrogate.

In the spring of 1977 street parties were organised across the country to celebrate the Queen’s silver jubilee. John and Tricia were unaware that this would be the day they would meet lifelong friends.

On that day, John and Tricia met six other couples while partying in the street. The bonds formed on that day would span 45 years and take them on incredible adventures as far away as Las Vegas.

John knew better than most how difficult it can to adjust to a new country and learn a new language. Whilst in Knaresborough he befriended a Lithuanian family to support them as they adjusted.

One young man, Auris, was welcomed into the friendship group. Alongside his two best friends Mick and Doug the four of them enjoyed many evenings in local pubs watching their beloved Leeds United play.

John and Tricia Puleikis (back right) with some of the Knaresborough couples in Las Vegas.

In his later years, John shut the chip shops and did some handy man work. He was a man that did “anything for anyone” and was even working on his neighbour’s garden the weeks before his passing.

Both Tricia and John tested positive for coronavirus. Tricia came down with a cold but John became very unwell.

Dev remembers video calling him in hospital on Tuesday and said he looked really well but by Thursday the “change was remarkable”. Despite, his worsening condition John continued to look ahead promising his friends they’d be back to Vegas in no time.

Unfortunately this wasn’t the case and John died the following week.

John’s story shows his strength and resilience, fighting against all odds to provide a stable home for his family and enjoy times with loving friends. Dev said he is “greatly missed by all of us”.

Throughout this week the Stray Ferret is publishing excerpts from an interview conducted with Harrogate Borough Council’s chief executive Wallace Sampson OBE. 

In the final part of our interview, we asked Mr Sampson about the impact of the covid crisis:

Mr Sampson, the Stray Ferret has reported that the council faces a budget deficit of £10m due to covid. Are you preparing to have staff cuts?

It’s been a very challenging year financially and going into the coming financial year it’s going to continue.

Covid has affected us in a number of ways. Income has reduced from parking, leisure, Harrogate Convention Centre and trade waste.

Nevertheless, thanks to the fantastic efforts of staff across the organisation, we’ve been able to address the majority of these pressures through cost savings and containing expenditure.

We’ve also put a recruitment freeze in place across the organisation. We’ve gone out to recruitment for very few posts but we’ve instead used staff in services that we cannot do, such as leisure, and we’ve re-adopted them. We’ve made savings in the region of £2m and that’s been a massive help to us.

We’re probably going to be facing pressures into the next financial year. In answer to your question about losing jobs, we’ll probably adopt a similar approach to last year which was really successful.

Wherever possible, we’re going to avoid recruiting and we will limit spend to areas where spend is really necessary. We’ll see if that gives an opportunity to manage the budget rather than making any job reductions. The challenge with job reductions is the effect on services.

What do you say to residents who are worried about the council tax rise that was agreed last month?

HBC’s element of the council tax is relatively small in proportion to NYCC, fire and police. We charge £250 a year at band D whereas the NYCC element is £1,411. In the context of it, £250 for the year is relatively small.

If you look over the last decade, we’ve increased council tax by about 14% since 2010. It’s going to £250 in the coming year but we were at £220 10 years ago.

Historically, the borough council has got a good track record in being able to keep council tax rises low because we’ve looked at a range of efficiency and income generation opportunities. We use those mechanisms so we don’t have to pass on huge increases in council tax to the taxpayer.

Read more of Mr Sampson’s interview here:

• HBC chief executive interview: The vision for Harrogate is very clear
• HBC chief executive interview: the district needs more homes
• HBC chief executive defends civic centre figures

What have been the hardest challenges for the council during the pandemic?

The biggest challenge for us was at the point we went into lockdown 12 months ago. It was a big transition for us as literally within the space of a couple of days we had to organise staff being able to work for home. That was a huge logistical exercise.

It was a slightly easier transition for us than other local authorities because we already had “agile working” in place, and that’s partly because of our move to the civic centre.

Very quickly we had to put in remote meetings. We were one of the first in the region to get those meetings in place so the democratic function could take place.

The most important thing was to put in place mechanisms to support businesses and the community. If you’ve looked at the reports that have come through to the cabinet over the last year you’ll get a sense of the pace we needed to work at and the scale of the operation we needed to put in place.

I have to say I’m really proud of the way council officers have responded, particularly within our economic development team and our business team who very quickly put in place mechanisms to pay the various covid grants that the government allocated to us.

I’m not exaggerating that many went above and beyond the call of duty and those businesses that received grants have been really grateful.

We’ve paid around 10,000 grants to about 5,000 businesses. In total, it’s about £60m in grants that have been paid out over the last 12 months.

The other side is the support we’ve given to the most vulnerable in our community. We’ve done a lot of work, as well with North Yorkshire County Council, to help people shielding because they’ve been clinically extremely vulnerable.

We’ve done something in the region of 20,000 calls to people shielding in that time. We’ve used the staff in our leisure department to do that work because facilities obviously been closed.

It’s been a really, really challenging year as a council but the standout is the way council staff from across the whole organisation have responded.

The Harrogate district has handed out a first dose of the coronavirus vaccine to 64,416 people so far.

NHS figures released today, which covers the period up until March 7, show how 20,000 of those jabs are in the arms of the under 60s.

It also comes as Harrogate District Hospital is now down to 17 coronavirus patients, down from 42 patients last Thursday.

Since the start of the pandemic the hospital has admitted 800 coronavirus positive patients and discharged 575.

Read more:

• ‘A costly PR stunt’: calls for an inquiry into Harrogate Nightingale
• Dramatic fall in number of covid patients at Harrogate hospital
• NHS confirms Harrogate Nightingale to close

Two more people have also died after testing positive for coronavirus at Harrogate District Hospital. One of the patients died yesterday and the other died on Tuesday.

The number of coronavirus cases has remained low in the Harrogate district over the past couple of weeks. Today the district added a further 13 cases to bring the total up to 7,419 cases.

This week the NHS also confirmed that the Nightingale hospital will close and the building will return as a convention centre.

Today we look at the life of Michael Whitehouse, in the fourth of a series of articles remembering those lost to coronavirus over the past year. We’d like to thank the families and friends who have been in touch with the Stray Ferret to share precious memories of their loved ones.

Michael Whitehouse was born on January 2, 1954 in Tipton in the West Midlands. He died aged 67 on February 1, 2021 at Harrogate District Hospital.

Michael was love by his wife, Christine, all his children and family who said “he was the best” and will be missed deeply.

He grew up in the West Midlands with his two siblings before moving to Harrogate 32 years ago after meeting his wife Christine.

Micheal aged 9

Before coming to Harrogate he worked as a cabinet maker and as an engineer for BT.

Michael could turn his hand to anything and was “polite to everyone”. He walked into a Harrogate bar in the summer of 1989 unaware his future wife was sitting in the same place.

From that day the pair were inseparable and got married on June 6, 1994 at Harrogate registry office.

The pair settled into family life in Harrogate, joining their families and then going on to have four children together.

The pairs combined family was made up of 11 children including Richard, Lisa, Sarah, Stacey, Scott, Adam, Emma and Karl who live locally.

Micheal and Christine on their wedding day in 1994.

Micheal started working for Yellow Line Taxis in Harrogate and worked as a driver for the Army Foundation College taking the staff to work.

After getting married on June 6, 1994 at Harrogate registry office the pair settled into family life in Harrogate.

Micheal was a big Harrogate Town fan and shared his love, in his later years, with his sons and grandson by heading to weekend home games. He also supported West Bromwich Albion.

Family was everything to Micheal and with 17 grandchildren and three great grandchildren he was never without company.

All the family on daughter Stacey’s wedding day.

Despite moving to Harrogate, he had a strong relationship with his brother Robert whom he always admired.

His other big passion was British birds and kept birds in his garden. Christine remembers how he would entertain the children on walks around the Yorkshire countryside pointing out the different birds.

He was a keen gardener too, his son, Adam, said he was “always busy doing something”.

Christine and Michael also enjoyed their yearly holidays to Mablethorpe. Christine says she “misses him every day”.

Micheal and Christine at son’s, Richard, wedding to his wife Marie.

Towards the end of his life, Michael was taken to hospital after testing positive for coronavirus. He was in hospital for 11 days before passing away.

The family said they were “grateful” and found comfort in being able to be with him at the end when other families couldn’t. Even at the end, Michael’s priority was his family and asked his children to take care of Christine.

Christine said her husband was the man you meet “once in a lifetime” and says she will treasure their time together.

The family wanted to thank anyone who had reached out for their support during this difficult time.