The lockdown in the Hunter and New England region has been extended as COVID-19 cases there continue to rise and more exposure sites are revealed.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the seven-day lockdown due to expire at midnight would be extended after 24 new cases were recorded in the region on Wednesday, making a total of 77 since August 5.
The stay-at-home orders are now in force until August 20 for everyone in Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Maitland, Port Stephens, Singleton, Dungog, Muswellbrook and Cessnock.
There were no new cases recorded on Wednesday in Armidale, Tamworth and Northern Rivers.
“Unfortunately the same isn’t the case for Hunter and New England,” Ms Berejiklian said on Thursday.
“So rather than coming out of lockdown tomorrow, that will be extended another week … given what the area is experiencing, the community would understand why that is the case.”
Northwest NSW, Dubbo, Armidale, Tamworth, Byron Bay and the Hunter region are all in lockdown as the Delta strain of the virus bleeds into rural and regional NSW.
Three new cases were identified in Dubbo overnight, bringing the total number of cases in western NSW to six.
New restrictions were imposed on the local government areas of Bogan, Bourke, Brewarrina, Coonamble, Gilgandra, Narromine, Walgett and Warren on Wednesday night, with the lockdown to remain in place until August 19.
That snap lockdown was prompted after a man was diagnosed with COVID-19 after being released from Bathurst jail on Monday and travelling 500km west to Walgett, visiting Dubbo and Bathurst en route.
Health Minister Brad Hazzard and Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly say they are concerned about the impact the virus would have on vulnerable Indigenous communities in western NSW.
“There’s still a very substantial percentage, in fact, by far the majority of Aboriginal people in that section of our state, who have not received the vaccine,” Mr Hazzard said.
He’s also asked for federal help to establish pop-up vaccination clinics and deploy ADF staff to the region.
Professor Kelly said vaccines were being redirected to the communities. Authorities were also making sure there were enough cartridges for the rapid testing facility in Walgett, as well as ensuring the Royal Flying Doctor service had enough capacity.
Of the 24 new cases in the Hunter New England district, 12 are associated with the Residential Aged Care Facility, RFBI Hawkins Masonic Retirement Village in Edgeworth, including eleven residents and one staff member.
The outbreak in the region was sparked by a Friday night beach party at Black Smith’s Beach near Newcastle that was attended by a teen from a coronavirus hotspot in western Sydney.
NSW Health’s sewage surveillance program has detected fragments of the virus in the Bomaderry sewage treatment plant which serves 18,000 people on the south coast, but there are no known cases of COVID-19 in the area.
NSW recorded 345 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 and two more deaths in the 24-hour period until 8pm on Wednesday.Â
AAP
Read more:
