The people who play the Brannings must all be having a long break as they featured heavily over Christmas/New Year and were in alot of episodes.
Patrick is obviously around but off screen as Dot played back the message she got him to record.
I read an interview with Samantha Janus recently where she spoke about her break coming up so she will be offscreen for a while. Personally I think that's a good thing - Ronnie and Roxy have featured too much for me in recent months.