The virulent Delta strain of COVID-19 continues to spread into NSW’s regions as more than 100 new local cases were recorded outside of Greater Sydney.
The government is yet to announce any extension to the lockdown for regional NSW which is scheduled to be lifted on Friday.
There were 1281 new locally-acquired cases of COVID-19 and five deaths reported in the state on Monday.
That included 44 new cases recorded in the Western NSW Health District, 35 of which Deputy Premier John Barilaro said were in Dubbo.
“Vaccination is the key to protect regional and rural communities from these outbreaks, more importantly about our path into the future,” Mr Barilaro said.
There were 21 new cases in the Illawarra Shoalhaven region which he said was becoming “an area of concern”.
He revealed two more cases were reported in the area overnight and they will be counted in Tuesday’s figures.
One of the seven cases in the far west recorded overnight was in Wilcannia where NSW Health said on Sunday an isolation hub, including 30 caravans, will be ready within days.
More than 13 per cent of the town’s predominantly Indigenous population have caught the virus.
Elsewhere in Wilcannia, an emergency management centre has been established at the town’s showground, housing personnel and staging response activities with emergency services and volunteers.
There were eight cases on the Central Coast, five in the Hunter-New England region and five in Southern NSW.
NSW Health’s ongoing sewage surveillance program recently detected fragments of the coronavirus at sewage treatment plants across the state.
Fragments were found in Byron Bay on the state’s North Coast overnight where no recent COVID-19 cases have been detected so NSW Health has urged residents to monitor for any symptoms.
Alongside the premier and deputy premier at Monday’s COVID-19 press conference was intensive care specialist Dr Nhi Nguyen who said there were contingency plans in place to respond to intensive care needs in the regions as case numbers peak in coming weeks.
“We’re watching that really carefully at the point in time – and we’re in regular contact with our colleagues out there [in Western NSW],” Dr Nguyen said.
AAP
