Younger people at risk

The current covid outbreak in western nsw is demonstrating the high transferability of the Delta strain and the vulnerability of younger members of the community.

Of the 32 new cases reported overnight more than half (56%) are in people under the age of 30 and 29% were people aged under 50, 13% are among people aged between 50 and 70, leaving just 2% of cases in our region aged over 70 years.

Dubbo continues to see the highest case numbers with 23 of the total, three more people in the Bourke shire have been diagnosed and one in Narromine. There are two new cases in Orange, 2 in Blayney and 1 in the Cabonne Shire (Cudal).

Ten of the 32 cases were in isolation, five were known to be infectious in the community and the remainder are still under investigation.

Three more people have been hospitalised, with 21 covid patients now in hospital across the district. Of these 4 are in intensive care and 3 of them are ventilated.

This brings the total number of cases in the Western NSW LHD to 788 including 583 in Dubbo, however work is being done to clarify the running total and to work out how many people out of the 788 are now clear of covid.

Get tested message not getting through

Gulargambone residents are again on notice with recent tests revealed fragments of the virus in the sewage treatment plant.

"We are not seeing enough tests to make sure we know where those positive cases are," said Dubbo MP Dugald Saunders.

"Please keep an eye on the list of venues of concern and check them regularly."

Mr Saunders acknowledged that there have been questions around why not all exposure sites are listed.

"We have had some questions around venues of concern," he said.

"It's important to know that not all venues are listed as public venues of concern if everyone who attended the venue was contacted by NSW Health.

"Venues will only be listed if Health is unsure of who was there at the time," he said.

The current list of case locations and venues of concern is available here.

Dubbo Saleyards closed for a fortnight.

Among those venues is an extended list of dates for the Dubbo Saleyards which now reaches from 26 August to 1 September.

He explained that the sale initially affected by an identified case of covid did go ahead a few days later, that was due to the welfare of animals already in the saleyards and was completed with a "skeleton staff". However, a decision had to be made to ensure the facility could re-open and function effectively.

Mayor of Dubbo Stephen Lawrence outlined the recent steps taken by his council to cancel both sheep and cattle sales for the next two weeks.

"We had very clear advice from NSW Health and we are following this to ensure we can re-open in a covid safe way," mr Lawrence said.

"Unfortunately there will be four sales missed."

"Saleyards have tentacles that reach right across the state … and we can't run the risk of some sort of super spreader event."