Due to ongoing concerns about community transmission of COVID-19 across the state, the NSW government has announced the extension of the regional NSW lockdown by another week.

This means the stay-at-home orders that were scheduled to come to an end at 12.01am on Sunday 22 August will remain in place until at least 12.01am on Saturday 28 August, in line with existing orders for Greater Sydney.

The announcement came from the Premier Gladys Berejiklian, Deputy Premier John Barilaro and NSW Health earlier today after announcing a new record of 681 new cases in the 24 hours to 8pm last night across the state.

25 of these new cases were from the Western NSW Local Health District (WNSWLHD), increasing slightly from the 23 new cases announced yesterday.

WNSWLHD Chief Executive Scott McLachlan said the vast majority of these cases are still in Dubbo, with 21 new cases, though it was urgent for all regional communities to remain vigilant.

Other cases identified in the past 24 hours include four in Mudgee, taking the total number of active cases in the WNSWLHD to 167.

WNSWLHD would later clarify two cases identified in Mudgee have been attributed to Brewarrina as they have an address in that area. One case has also been attributed to Bathurst but that person is located in Dubbo.

Mr McLachlan also confirmed there were two overnight cases recorded - one in Gilgandra and one in Bourke.

The WNSWLHD now has a total of 89 venues of concern; They are located at Dubbo (70), Mudgee (11), Orange (2), Bathurst (2), Bourke (2), Gilgandra (1) and Walgett (1). The full list of venues of concern is available on the NSW Health website.

The majority of the new cases were once again infectious in the community though Mr McLachlan was pleased to see that number decreasing.

He said a more concerning decrease was the number of tests, showing a recent decline and urged more people to go out and get tested, particularly in communities with active cases.

All current testing locations across the Western Plains can be found here.

Mr McLachlan again apologised for the delays in people waiting multiple days for their results and their inability to get through to their public health team on 1300 066 055.

To ease the burden on this line he also encouraged people who are having their results looked at by either Laverty Pathology or Histopath Diagnostic Specialists to contact them both directly.

They can be reached at 13 39 36 and 9878 8111 respectively.

Mr McLachlan also had exciting news about new pop-up walk-in vaccination clinics being set up on Saturday in partnership with Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel.

At a press conference earlier today, NSW Operations Commander Colonel Warwick Young said 50 personnel were already on the ground assisting police with support and compliance operations in the Dubbo community.

A further five 'vaccination outreach' teams, made up of roughly 70 personnel, will arrive in Dubbo and to start preparing for the local weekend vaccination hubs before moving into outreaching communities in the remote regions north, east and south of the town. Timeframes and exact locations will be announced in the coming days.

For all the latest information on COVID-19 across NSW, including plenty of helpful links, check out our COVID-19 button.