Western NSW Local Health District's CEO Scott McLachlan today reminded communities that the Stay at Home orders have been the most effective tool in slowing the spread of covid in our communities and that extra vigilance will be needed as schools return on Tuesday and when restrictions lift in coming weeks. 

He highlighted the importance of the lockdown in helping to keep a lid on numbers in this district and warned against 'Freedom Day' celebrations when 11 October arrives and restrictions ease across the state. 

"If we didn't have stay-at-home orders in place … the number of cases would have doubled every three days and become 5000 cases," Mr McLachlan said. "Today and yesterday we saw rapidly growing numbers of covid cases - this is certainly not the time to be relaxed about this."

"There have been 43 new cases across our health district today, a significant increase on yesterday and the few days before that," Mr McLachlan said. "You only have to think that this time last week we had days with three, four or five new cases." 

As well as the high risk situation in Oberon in the east of the district where 12 cases were identified, there were six in Cowra, four each in Dubbo and Wellington, three in Bathurst, one each in Gulgong and Mudgee. The western plains area saw seven new cases in Bourke, three in Walgett and two in Narromine. 

Mr McLachlan also advised that sewage testing results had "gone off in the last 24 hours" in Gilgandra and Nyngan. 

"These are places where there weren't existing known cases and is a significant signal to our communities of the need to be extra careful," Mr McLachlan said. 

"I particularly ask anyone in any of those locations to take advantage of the testing that is widely available." 

No change to Stay-at-Home orders ... for now 

Bourke remains in lockdown with a "big spike" in cases and five out of the seven new cases requiring investigation as to their contact status. 

"One is a household contact, one was infectious in the community and we will be following the others up today," Mr McLachlan said. 

The Walgett shire is still due to be released from lockdown at midnight tonight as all three new cases were known household contacts and isolating at home. 

Mr McLachlan said, "I don't expect we'll make any changes to the Stay-at-Home orders in these communities at this stage but it is a real warning that on any day of the week this can take off." 

Narromine will not have Stay-at-Home orders reintroduced at this stage but this could change in coming days with those new cases under investigation. As well as existing testing sites, the mobile in-home testing service will be extended to the Narromine community over the coming Long Weekend for those who can't leave their homes. 

"This is a time to be super-vigilant and now is the time to hunker down and stop the spread," Mr McLachlan said. "We see this as a high risk in that community and I suspect there'll be more cases in coming days." 

"It is a real area of concern so I urge everybody to be on guard for signs and symptoms of covid," he said. 

Get tested before school starts 

There is an apprehension around skyrocketing cases as restrictions ease and the return of school students next week will be a testing time for the region. 

"A continuing trend we are seeing with the rising vaccination rates in adults is that there is a lot of spreading between kids," Mr McLachlan said. "This is a real concern with kids going back to school next week." 

Throughout the current outbreak, more than forty per cent of total cases have been people aged under 20 years and this trend is continuing. 

"In today's cases sixty per cent are under 20 and more than half of those are under ten years old," Mr McLachlan said. 

"Kids are great spreaders of Covid-19 so its important to get tested with school going back next week. Use this long weekend as an opportunity to get the entire family tested." 

Vaccination news 

As vaccination rates continue to "skyrocket" across the western region, the number of people hospitalised with covid has begun to fall. 

There are currently 11 patients in hospital, however five of those are in intensive care and three are on ventilation and, according to Mr McLachlan, "are pretty crook." 

"The vast majority of those in hospital are unvaccinated," he said. 

"Some of this could have been avoided if people had been vaccinated." 

In a new development today, people aged over 60 years are now eligible to receive both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. 

"If you've got an aunty or uncle, a mum or dad who haven't been vaccinated then getting them vaccinated should be your absolute priority in coming days and weeks," Mr McLachlan said. 

"Please don't leave your home if you haven't had your first dose of the vaccine."