Liverpool Santa Dash have announced new headline Partner for 2021

ORGANISERS of the world famous Liverpool Santa Dash have announced a local based gifting company as the event's headline partner for the 2021 return of the popular annual event. BTR Liverpool has revealed that Appreciate Group is backing the festive spectacular, which is highly regarded as the City's kick start to Christmas and is thought to be the UK's biggest festive 5K fun run. This year's event takes place on Sunday 5 December 2021 and will be known as the Appreciate Group Liverpool Santa Dash. Due to Coronavirus restrictions and lockdown measures, the 2020 event was unable to go ahead.

However, BTR Liverpool introduced a virtual format enabling Santas to run 5K locally in their red or blue suit, allowing them to follow Government guidelines and maintain social distancing. The virtual Santa Dash was embraced with enthusiasm, with almost 2,000 Santas taking part across Liverpool and the UK, as well as internationally in:- Australia, Denmark, Dubai, Germany, Sweden, and the USA.

Plans are now underway to bring the Liverpool Santa Dash to life once again as a public event as Covid19 restrictions continue to be lifted. Created by BTR Race Director Alan Rothwell, the Liverpool Santa Dash was 1st staged in 2004. A separate 1K Mini Dash for under 12's was added in 2007, and blue Santa suits were introduced 3 years later.

This year, the team behind the event are pulling out all the stops in a bid to enable participants get their Santa Dash fix in real life. Any Covid19 guidelines required at the time of the event will be followed. Liverpool based Appreciate Group is home to many of the nation's most loved gifting and reward products including:- Love2shop, HighStreetVouchers.com, and Park Christmas Savings. Based in the Region for more than 50 years, Appreciate Group are committed to supporting their community.

Andy Hammerton, Head of Corporate Affairs at Appreciate Group, commented:- "This year's Appreciate Group Liverpool Santa Dash is eagerly anticipated as the excitement of live events comes back into our lives. We are delighted and proud to be supporting this great event in our home City and working with BTR Liverpool. As a company that has been based in the Region for more than half a century, we're passionate about helping to create joy within our community. The Liverpool Santa Dash is an event that is truly open to everyone; whether you're a seasoned runner, participating for fun, or championing a cause close to your heart. Running and walking has become so important for many people throughout the Pandemic, so taking part in the Santa Dash will be such a special experience. Together with BTR Liverpool, we are keen to see the enthusiasm this year's event will create; so join us for the Appreciate Group Liverpool Santa Dash, on Sunday, 5 December 2021."

BTR Liverpool is the leading independent organisation for creating, managing and delivering headline race events across Liverpool City Region. Its extensive portfolio also includes:- the BTR Liverpool Skyline Half Marathon; BTR Mersey Tunnel 10K; BTR Port Sunlight 5K and 10K; and 52 mile BTR Tour Of Merseyside.

Santas can look forward to dashing round Liverpool City centre with landmarks en-route including Pier Head Liverpool, Museum Of Liverpool, and the Grade I Listed Royal Albert Dock Liverpool, before a grandstand finish outside Liverpool Town Hall.

The Appreciate Group Liverpool Santa Dash is an accessible event and is open to everyone, from those running purely for fun and others fundraising. Each year Santas include:- wheelchair participants, walkers, joggers, runners, families, friends, colleagues; even tiny Santas in prams and 4 legged furry Santas.

The event acts as a platform for community groups, businesses, and charities to fundraise independently while taking part. This year's official event charity will be announced in the coming weeks.

BTR Race Director Alan Rothwell commented:- "We are thrilled to have the nation's leading gifting company on board to partner this year's event. It is a very fitting collaboration, and we welcome Appreciate Group to the Liverpool Santa Dash family. It has been a very challenging 16 months for everyone, including live events and small business, so we're incredibly excited that we can now plan ahead and make the 2021 return of the Liverpool Santa Dash a memorable experience for everyone. A sea of red and blue Santas gathering at Pier Head Liverpool against the backdrop of the City's iconic waterfront and Three Graces really is a sight to behold. We're already counting down the days until we can once again experience the festive spectacular of the Liverpool Santa Dash."

Online entries for the Appreciate Group Liverpool Santa Dash 2021 are open now. The registration fee covers all costs to organise and deliver the event including:- road closures, safety measures, Santa suits, medals, and entertainment. For full details visit:- BTRLiverpool.com.
 

Liverpool Covid19 testing pilot cut virus cases and spread

Researchers found that:-

• Testing saved around a day in the time it takes to identify someone as likely to pass on the virus, and by being able to test more people

• There was strong public awareness of, and a largely positive attitude toward community testing, motivated by shared identity, civic pride and a wish to protect others

• Co-ordination of testing with timely data integrated across NHS and public health organisations was critical to success

However, people living in more deprived areas were less likely to take up testing and more likely to test positive. Fear of loss of income in self isolation was a significant factor in this inequity in testing.

The Combined Intelligence for Population Health Action (Cipha.NHS.UK) system used to coordinate testing is now expanding to other Regions and could contribute to building up a 'national grid' of public health data systems needed to improve Pandemic responses.

Testing centres for people without symptoms have continued to be a core part of Liverpool's Covid19 response, along with the vaccine rollout.

Professor Iain Buchan, Dean of the Institute of Population Health and lead for the evaluation of Liverpool community testing pilot, said:- "Introducing rapid antigen testing for people without symptoms of Covid19, living or working in the City of Liverpool in November 2020, saw cases fall by a 5th, while the ability of the public health service to detect new cases; with or without symptoms; rose by a 5th. No other City or Region was exactly like Liverpool at the time in terms of the Pandemic or its restrictions, but with careful analysis of data from across England, we have shown that rapid antigen testing was a useful addition to other public health measures. The lateral flow devices performed as expected from biology, identifying people with bigger loads of virus, more likely to be infectious; and doing so in less than an hour they enabled isolation a day sooner than was possible with PCR tests. Effective testing for the Covid19 virus, however, is much more than a test. People in disadvantaged areas, and those with fewer digital resources, found it more difficult to access testing or to afford to isolate. The local public health team was vital in adapting testing to reach as much of the population as possible. Local approaches were also key to understanding how to offer daily testing as an alternative to quarantine for contacts of cases. The City-wide teamwork and data integration needed to deliver community testing in Liverpool are assets likely to outlast the Pandemic. A national grid of intelligence led local public health systems is needed to resist the next Pandemic and to recover from this 1, an important conclusion of our evaluation; a bigger picture than testing for virus antigen."

Liverpool's Director of Public Health, Matthew Ashton, said:- "The Covid19 testing pilot was cutting edge public health work in action and a substantial number of people in the City embraced it. It helped cement regular testing as a way of identifying those with the virus who would have been unknowingly spreading it to others, and contributed to the fall in the infection rate we saw in Liverpool over the course of the pilot. It proved to be hugely valuable at a point in time when the vaccines had not yet been rolled out. It also reinforced challenges we face across all areas of public health, such as how to reach those in deprived areas, and helped us to work together with partners to address them. We hope our learning can be used by Governments here and abroad, not just in managing Covid19, but also in future Pandemics."