As New South Wales marks three million COVID-19 tests since January, the NSW Government is calling on the community to continue to work together to fight the deadly virus.
Health Minister Brad Hazzard warned that while recent easing of restrictions is very welcome, it comes with risks and it is critical everyone keeps getting tested.
“This is a stealthy virus and if we give it an inch, it will take a mile and undo a lot of good work,” Brad said, “I thank the people of NSW for their efforts and sacrifices during the past nine months, which have put us in a position where we have been able to ease restrictions.”
The NSW Government aims to be able to continue to ease restrictions in the weeks and months ahead, but this depends on us being successful in minimising community transmission.
As of 8pm on 26 October 2020, 3,000,641 COVID-19 tests had been performed on 2,247,101 people in NSW. Of those people tested, 63.7 per cent had a single test and 36.3 per cent had more than one test. NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said it was critical that people continue to come forward for testing and practice COVID-safe behaviours when out and about.
“When we have high numbers of people continuing to get tested, that allows us to detect cases in the community earlier and prevent onward transmission,” Kerry said.
“Get tested at the first sign of even the mildest of symptoms, wash your hands regularly, physically distance and wear a mask when using public transport and in places where you can’t physically distance.”