Despite health officials praising a recent upswing in vaccination and testing rates, NSW has recorded its largest spike in locally acquired COVID-19 cases to date, including just shy of two dozen in the western region.

NSW Health recorded 633 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night, including 23 in the Western NSW Local Health District (WNSWLHD).

According to the WNSWLHD, 21 of these cases are in Dubbo, one in Bourke and one is in Mudgee. This takes the total regional active case numbers to 142.

WNSWLHD Chief Executive Scott McLachlan said 67 per cent of the currently active cases identify as Aboriginal and a large proportion, nearly 70 per cent, are under 30 years old.

There are also five cases - all adults - that are in Dubbo hospital, though none are in intensive care and all are being treated by health staff.

New venues of concern have also been identified, taking the total to 81 across the WNSWLHD. 

65 of these are in Dubbo, 11 are in Mudgee, two are in Orange, two are in Bathurst and one is in Walgett. The full list of venues of concern is available on the NSW Health website.

While concerned about all areas with currently active cases, Mr McLachlan said he was particularly worried about the spread in Bourke, which currently has no venues of concern identified.

"We know (Bourke) is a very mobile community that has been moving around so we know there is the large potential for spread in Bourke," he said.

"We also know that the cases we have identified in the last three days were moving throughout the community."

Several thousand tests were also conducted over the WNSWLHD in the past 24 hours, with the total in the last four weeks now at 65,932.

Mr McLachlan expressed his gratitude for the continuing high testing numbers and encouraged anyone who has any signs or symptoms to go and get tested, even if they have already received a negative result previously.

Click here for a fully updated list of all the COVID-19 testing sites across the Western Plains.

Mr McLachlan acknowledged there are a lot of people across the region who are taking several days to get their test results.

"I'm really sorry for that - it’s not what we want," he said.

He urged people to try contacting 1300 066 055 if they are waiting for their results any longer than 72 hours, though he also admitted this was also experiencing difficulties.

"We know there have been people not being able to get through - we are getting more staff on the line and actually took more calls yesterday than we had before," he said.

Alongside health staff, NSW Police are increasing their own investigations into community compliance across the region this week.

As of today, they have been joined by Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel to assist in Dubbo and Newcastle investigations.

One incident that has recently been flagged by police is of a Queensland man stopped in Mendooran east of Gilgandra on Tuesday 18 August.

According to police reports, the man had flown out of Queensland because he was "sick of COVID" and had driven from the airport in Sydney and travelled backroads through NSW for 10 days before hitting a Kangaroo near Mendooran.

Upon identification by police, the man was given a $1000 PIN and sent back to a nominated address in Sydney. This was among a total of 736 PINs handed out by NSW police across the state that day.

Mr McLachlan said he had been "gob smacked" to hear about the incident and praised local residents for making authorities aware of the breach of the public health orders.

He also welcomed the addition of the ADF joining the vaccination - including newly delivered Pfizer doses - and community compliance effort in the west.

He said several teams will be allocated to Dubbo and northern remote communities this week and he would more details on this and the vaccination program tomorrow.

Mr McLachlan was also asked today about the possibility of the current stay at home orders still coming to an end on Sunday 22 August.

He said all of NSW Health was aware of the severe impacts being caused to communities in lockdown and were currently considering the best course of action. He said he expected a decision would be released in the next couple of days.

For all the latest information about COVID-19 in regional and urban NSW, including plenty of helpful links, check out our COVID-19 button.