COVID-19 is still spreading quickly in the regions with a daily record of 49 new cases in western NSW.
“Western NSW health district is still of great concern, with 49 new cases overnight,” NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro said on Wednesday.
There were 35 new cases in Dubbo, seven in Bourke, five in Orange and one in Narromine and Walgett.
Of the 919 locally acquired cases reported to 8pm on Tuesday, 71 are from the Nepean Blue Mountains, 49 are from western NSW, seven are from the far west, eight are from the Illawarra Shoalhaven, four are from Hunter New England and one is from Central Coast.
NSW Health says people in the affected areas throughout western NSW need to be extremely vigilant and get tested at the first sign of symptoms.
NSW Health’s ongoing sewage surveillance program has recently detected fragments of the virus at the sewage treatment plants in Bateau Bay and Toukley on the Central Coast and Merimbula on the South Coast, which serve around 39,000, 29,000 and 15,500 people respectively.
Mr Barilaro said authorities were closely monitoring sewerage in Merimbula, because of its proximity to Canberra.
“We know that many people from Canberra have moved to the South Coast.
“It’s an area that has been quite clean from COVID for a long time and we are asking the community to come out and be tested immediately, even for the mildest of symptoms,” he said.
Everyone in those areas is being urged to monitor for symptoms and get tested and isolate if they appear.
It’s been two weeks since Dubbo went into lockdown with cases there now nearing 300, with many cases in the vulnerable Indigenous community.
Lockdown will remain in place until at least August 28 in regional NSW and at least September 30 in Sydney and surrounds.
AAP
