Forbes Police are the latest to join the state-wide Operation Stay-At-Home as COVID continues to spread across the Central West.

Penalties have significantly increased after police were granted extra powers by the Berejiklian government as the pandemic infiltrates the region. Breaching self-isolation rules, lying on a permit and lying to a contact tracer now carry $5,000 fines.

Superintendent Shane Jessep has confirmed local police will investigate claims of breaches of the public health orders and follow up.

The crackdown comes despite record amounts of calls to Crimestoppers over the past month especially as more members of the public continue to dob in thy neighbour for breaches.

Penalties are now as follows:
• $5,000 on the spot fine for breaching self-isolation rules;
• $5,000 on the spot fine for lying on a permit (already a criminal offence);
• $5,000 on the spot fine for lying to a contact tracer (already a criminal offence);
• $3,000 on the spot fine for breaching the two-person outdoor exercise/recreation rule; and
• $3,000 on the spot fine for breaching rules around entry into regional NSW for authorised work, inspecting real estate and travelling to your second home.

Jessep said that normal crime prevention and law enforcement will still be a priority and “if you have an emergency, please dial 000”. To report COVID breaches, please contact Crimestoppers 1800 333 000.

NSW Police last Saturday announced that Operation Stay-At-Home. Significantly, 1400 officers attached to Traffic and Highway Patrol Command will be dedicated to both static and mobile COVID-19 compliance operations on the state’s roads.

A further 500 Australian Defence Force troops, in addition to 300 deployed, will assist with compliance checks and patrols. The Central West can expect to start seeing a similar roll-out over the next few weeks.

With NSW going into lockdown this week, children from across Forbes Shire woke up last Monday morning to the familiar site of parents (and teachers) for a week of homeschool.

For Forbes Public School students Lexi and Violet Millerd, home-school is nothing new having had their first taste back in early 2020 when the COVID pandemic first broke.

“We have done home school before and I really enjoyed it,” said Lexi. “It was great and it never bothered me at all,” she said.

For Violet, last year was her first year at school and the disruption to Kindergarten for some while initially challenging eventually became a footnote in what was still a good year.

“I did miss my friends last year when we first heard about ‘Rona,” said Violet. “But dad was a great teacher so it was fun!” Lexi agreed.

LearnFromHome started across regional NSW this week for schools. Schools are still open for families who need it. Your school should contact you regarding LearnFromHome. Online resources are also available on https://fal.cn/3gGKw.

Get tested immediately if you or your child have any symptoms, and do not attend school. NSW Health: www.health.nsw.gov.au/

Visit https://fal.cn/3gGKv for the latest COVID-19 advice.

The Forbes Shire is under strict Stay-at-home orders along with the rest of regional NSW until 12.01am Sunday August 22nd 2021. Mayor of Forbes Shire, Phyllis Miller, would like everyone to remain calm and follow NSW Health guidelines.

“I want to encourage all of our community to go and get tested for COVID-19,” said Mayor Phyllis Miller OAM.

“Parkes has detected COVID in their sewage system and it is yet to be determined if there is a case in Parkes. The two towns are so closely linked we need to treat this as if we are one town,” Phyllis said.

COVID testing is set up at the Forbes Showground from 8am – 2pm daily with people urged to go and get tested if they are showing even the mildest of symptoms.

“We need to keep our community safe and get this under control,” she said.

“We need everyone to stay at home for the rest of this week. It is a reasonable excuse to leave your home for work – but only if it cannot be done from home. By all means continue to exercise but keep to the guidelines of exercising with your masks on and limiting it to two people together at one time.”

Forbes Shire Council administration office will be closed to the public during this time. The office is closed to the public but will continue to provide essential services within. Daroobalgie Waste Facility is closed to the public until further notice. Those residents who reside outside the urban collection area are asked to hold their waste until the landfill reopens to the public. Kerbside collection will also continue as scheduled.

“Council understands the frustration this closure may cause, however, it is in the interest of the community’s well-being and safety.”

In a real boost to the region, residents in Forbes, Orange and Dubbo are reaping the benefits of almost half a million dollars’ worth of state-of-the-art imaging equipment upgrades at the hospitals. Western NSW Local Health District (WNSWLHD) invested $450,000 to upgrade the three sites’ ultra-sound machines.

WNSWLHD Medical Imaging Services General Manager James Harvey said, “This provides an important boost to the region’s Medical Imaging services. We have a very thorough replacement program for our Medical Imaging equipment, this year alone we have replaced nearly $3.5 million worth of equipment across a range of sites including Orange, Dubbo, Forbes, Coonabarabran and Bourke.”

“We strive to ensure our Medical Imaging Departments and staff utilise the best and most up-to-date equipment as possible, leading to improved diagnostic outcomes for patients.”

All three new machines are operational and in use while the new unit at Forbes Hospital is providing patients in the area with more access to care – something many have been championing for some time.

Forbes Health Service Medical Imaging Manager, Jenny Webb was ecstatic with the news.

“Having world class, state-of-the-art imaging equipment in a rural community benefits all patients referred to our Medical Imaging Service. We can offer a wide variety of scan types that patients don’t need to travel elsewhere for – saving time, effort, money and transport,” she said.

“Any patient that requires an ultrasound, from within the hospital or a referral, can access Forbes Medical Imaging ultrasound services. Ultrasound uses no radiation and is excellent at visualising soft tissues such as organs, muscles, blood flows and commonly used for pregnancy.”

The equipment has been funded through a combination of leasing, trade-ins and capital funding. The WNSWLHD budget for 2020-21 is more than $1 billion, that’s $21 million more than the previous year.

Dr. Daniel Rasmusson has just turned over a year in practice here in Forbes and is more excited than ever to be a part of this community.

Dan’s chiropractic story began in his home town in Billesholm, Sweden where he had an interest in health & fitness and started powerlifting and bodybuilding. Dan discovered chiropractic as he researched ways to improve his overall performance. Fascinated by his research, he tried it for himself and was blown away by his results.

Dan enrolled himself at the best Chiropractic School in the world; The New Zealand College of Chiropractic, where he spent the next 5 years. Shortly thereafter he was headhunted by CEO of Chiropractic Life, Dr. Adam McKenzie. After one week visiting Forbes, he had fallen in love with the rural town and its amazing community.

Unfortunately, plans changed as Dan had to wait over 6 months for his visa to be approved. Meanwhile the practice was temporarily closed. This August we are celebrating 12 months since Dr. Dan has been officially practicing in Forbes. Dan is loving his life here and is excited to continue helping the people of our community live their healthiest lives.

Chiropractic Life is located at 39A South Gloucester Street, Forbes. Call 02 6815 7877 or go to www.chiropracticlife.com.au

New figures from the Cancer Institute NSW show that in 2021, almost 226 people in Western NSW Local Health District (WNSWLHD) will be diagnosed with bowel cancer and around 81 will die from the disease.

However, experts say a simple test could change this. Taking part in regular bowel cancer screening can help detect cancer early and, in some cases, help to prevent cancer by picking up changes before cancer develops.

The National Bowel Cancer Screening Program sends a bowel cancer screening test kit to all eligible Australians aged 50 to 74, every two years. This kit, which can be done in a person’s home, can detect potential warning signs of bowel cancer at a very early stage, before symptoms develop.

Currently in NSW, only 40.8 percent of test kits sent out by the
WNSWLHD Director Cancer Services and Innovation Dr. Ruth Jones, also urged men and women aged 50 to 74 to screen for bowel cancer.

“Around 81 people in WNSWLHD will lose their life to bowel cancer this year. My message to everyone in our community is do the test when it comes in the post. Don’t put it off. This piece of mail could save your life. We need people to stop putting the test away in a drawer and forgetting about it.”

Over the past five years, the NSW Government, through the Cancer Institute NSW, has invested more than $25 million in bowel cancer, including for public awareness and education campaigns, and grants to local community and health organisations to promote bowel cancer screening.

For more information on the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program, visit cancer.nsw.gov.au and if you have any symptoms or change in bowel habits, please talk to your GP.

NSW Health is redirecting Pfizer vaccines from other regions across the state to support Year 12 students in Greater Sydney returning to face-to-face learning for their HSC. As a result, residents in the Central West may receive a notice advising that their first dose of Pfizer will be rescheduled.

“If you have had your first dose already or if you’re in priority groups 1a or 1b, you will not have your bookings rescheduled,” a NSW spokesperson said.

“GPs continue to supply Pfizer vaccinations in regional NSW, and their supplies from the Federal Government are unaffected by this reallocation,” the spokesperson said. “AstraZeneca also remains available from GPs, NSW Health clinics and a growing number of pharmacies.”

Public health advice, based on the latest information from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI), now recommends that all individuals in NSW aged 18 years and over should consider getting vaccinated with any available vaccine, including COVID-19 AstraZeneca Vaccine.

“NSW Health apologise for the inconvenience this has caused and really appreciate your patience”.

You can book another COVID-19 vaccine appointment at your local GP, community pharmacy or a NSW Health clinic near you.

Visit: https://covid-vaccine.healthdirect.gov.au/

In Australia so far, COVID cases in total since the beginning of the pandemic are around 33,000 – that’s roughly the population of Bathurst and with only 13.1% fully vaccinated the number is expected to grow if NSW residents especially don’t start following public health orders and get vaccinated according to WNSWLHD Chief Executive Officer Scott McLachlan.

“The sooner we can all get vaccinated the better,” he said.

“We also need people to continue to get tested!”

With plenty of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine available and the imminent arrival of more Pfizer shots plus the increase in mobile sites, hubs, teams and locations such as medical centres, hospitals and pharmacies, there are multiple opportunities for people to get vaccinated especially over 40s.

McLachlan said that our region had just the one active case who was identified last week in the Cabonne Shire. Forbes, despite at one point being the focus of a potential COVID scare back on June 10, remains on the same restrictions as most of regional NSW and has done since an infected Victorian couple drove through Forbes on the way to the Sunshine Coast.

Key information as of July 28:

• Overnight there have been no new cases COVID-19 identified in our Local Health District;

• There is currently one active case of COVID-19 in our LHD. That case is located in the Cabonne LGA;

• As a result of contact tracing and other investigations we currently have six venues of concern in our LHD; five in Orange and one at Bathurst. All venues of trans-mission or concern are listed on the NSW Health website;

• Yesterday, more than 1,400 COVID-19 tests were performed in the Central West;

• In most cases, people will receive their results within 72 hours. If people are waiting longer than 72 hours for results, please contact our public health team between 8am and 5pm, Monday to Friday on 1300 066 055;

• Up to time of publication there had been approximately 38,000 tests conducted in the WNSWLHD in the last four weeks;

• Overnight there have been no changes to public health orders. However we encourage readers to check online for the latest updates.

Community members with questions should be encouraged to contact the National Coro-navirus Helpline on 1800 020 080.

For information on COVID-19 testing locations go to www.nsw.gov.au and click the COVID-19 button to search for your nearest location. Anyone with symptoms related to COVID-19 should arrange to be tested and self-isolate until they receive their results.

For information on COVID-19 vaccination go to the COVID-19 Vaccine Eligibility Checker at www.health.gov.au