GET VACCINATED: More and more locations throughout the Central West will soon be able to provide vaccines for community members. Please check with your local GP or via NSW Health for times and availability and book your vaccine today! INSET: WNSWLHD Chief Executive Scott McLachlan.
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