As you may already know, the UK Government announced yesterday evening a delay in moving to the next step of their roadmap out of lockdown. Step 4 has now been put back to no earlier than 19 July 2021, meaning for now the vast majority of the ongoing safety requirements will remain as they are.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your continued cooperation throughout the ongoing lockdown period. I know that this delay will come as a disappointment to many of you, but it is vital we all keep supporting one another by following all Government guidance during this additional stage of lockdown release.

Kent Summer Fest

For those of you looking forward to joining us on campus for Kent Summer Fest next week, the good news is that we will we going ahead from Monday as planned.

Whilst yesterday’s announcement means we will be making some changes to our programme to fit within the current restrictions, we have had safety and flexibility built into our planning throughout and we will still be offering a full programme of events.

I hope to see as many as possible of you for a fortnight of fun-packed events and a chance to socialise and relax together after such a difficult year. We will share final details of ‘what’s on’ via our Kent Summer Fest webpages later this week.

Testing

A huge thank you to all of you who have taken part in the additional enhanced testing in Canterbury both on our campus and across the city. The testing finishes at the end of today, so please do try and get along to the testing vans on the Keynes and Darwin carparks today if you can for one of your weekly tests.

Whilst this focus on new variants is coming to an end, remember that you do still need to get regularly tested, especially if you are living on campus, coming to Kent Summer Fest or accessing other campus facilities. The campus asymptomatic testing centres are still open in Canterbury and Medway and in Canterbury we also offer home testing kits for you to collect. For those not able to collect from campus, please order your home kits from the NHS directly.

For those of you with symptoms or who test positive, please self-isolate immediately, arrange an NHS PCR test and let us know. Further information is in our ‘What to do if you have Covid-19 symptoms or advised to self-isolate’ online guide.

Please do continue to get in touch with CovidSupport@kent.ac.uk if you have any questions or concerns.

Professor Richard Reece | Deputy Vice-Chancellor Education and Student Experience