Dubbo man believed to be Australia’s first Indigenous-Covid 19 death
Rolling coverage: Another 28 new cases of Covid have been recorded across western NSW, with more than 700 reported in the region since the Delta outbreak began.
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Heath officials believe a couple who had visited a Covid-hit part of western Sydney and travelled back to Dubbo were the source of the current outbreak in western NSW.
Scott McLachlan, the Western NSW Local Health District chief executive, said “it was a couple that were in Western Sydney and came back into our region what was now over four, to four-and-a-half weeks ago”.
“We believe we’ve tracked that down to a location in western Sydney has the same strain of Covid-19 and the biological markers and so we do believe that we’ve picked up the originating case,” he said.
“I can’t give you details on exactly who it was, I don’t think that’s fair to the person.
“We know that the spread in Sydney was always a risk for someone bringing it to our region. We saw issues in Blayney and Parkes with a truck driver, we knew there were people moving in and out of our region, honestly I think it was a just a matter of time until we did see some spread in our community.”
Mr McLachlan urged people to focus on the present challenges facing the region and not dwell on the past.
“Please don’t focus so much on the originating case and where all this came from, it’s nice to look in the rear vision mirror but what we’ve got in front of us is a real challenge to stop the spread of Covid.
“Don’t think about what happened a month ago, think about what’s happening today.”
The revelation came after a further 28 cases of Covid were confirmed across western NSW on Thursday.
“In the Far West Local Health District there were five new cases … four in Wilcannia, one in Broken Hill,” NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro said.
“In the Western NSW local Health District there were 23 new cases, 18 in Dubbo, four in Orange and one in Brewarrina.”
UPDATE 1:30pm September 1
Police are investigating a person with Covid who deliberately travelled from Dubbo to Orange despite knowing they were infections.
Western NSW Local Health District chief executive Scott McLachlan confirmed an investigation was underway after the person presented to the emergency department at Orange hospital.
“We became aware from a patient that came to our emergency department in Orange that they’d travelled all the way from Dubbo to Orange knowing that they were infectious and potentially putting other lives at risk,” Mr McLachlan told reporters on Wednesday.
“It’s a matter the police are following up on at the moment.
“It’s an incredible … people that are willing to leave isolation, come out knowing that they’re infectious in the community and putting lives at risk.”
The alarming revelation came after police issued a warning about sick people who were not getting tested and putting officers and the community in a dangerous but avoidable situation.
Assistant NSW Police Commissioner and Western Region Commander Geoff McKechnie “the old ‘she’ll be right’” attitude was not the right one for people to adopt.
“What we are seeing across the region unfortunately is police coming into contact with people who are quite ill but don’t know they have Covid,” he said.
“We’ve had a couple of instances overnight in the last 24 hours where police have encountered people who actually needed medical attention but weren’t seeking it and hadn’t been tested for Covid. When they were, they were positive.
“We don’t want you to be ill, we don’t want our officers to be ill either because straight away out of those instances we’re losing valuable frontline police that need to be out there, doing their work.”
When asked about reports people with Covid, or those required to isolate, were refusing to stay in isolation, Commander McKechnie confirmed numerous excuses were offered up by rule breakers.
“People offer all sorts of reasons, none of them good enough to satisfy the current health order.
“One problem we are identifying is certainty people looking for other illicit substances, in terms of prohibited drugs in particular.
“We are picking up a number of people moving around involved in the drug supply type activities and drug possession.”
Mr McLachlan said while the community had to accept Covid would be part of our lives into the future, people who refused to follow current rules were putting the lives of others at risk.
“It’s not going to ever go away in our communities, but I’m just so concerned that people are taking others lives into their hands,” he said.
“It’s just beyond ridiculous.”
“The most urgent thing we can do is get vaccinated and stay safe now while we’re in this period of Covid spreading around our community while we don’t have enough people vaccinated.”
Since the Delta outbreak began in western NSW three weeks ago, there have been 630 cases in the Western NSW Local Health District and 86 in the Far West Local Health District.
A total of 716 people across the whole of western NSW have been diagnosed with Covid during the current outbreak.
It comes as teachers in regional communities across the state will soon be able to book priority Covid-19 jabs as part of a co-ordinated vaccination day set to take place across NSW.
Deputy Premier John Barilaro said NSW Health was working alongside NSW Education and Minister Sarah Mitchell to lock in a date for the teacher vaccination day.
The regional vaccination day for teachers is expected to line up with the Qudos Bank Arena Mass Vaccination days scheduled to take place for Sydney educators from September 6.
Mr Barilaro said Local Health Districts, particularly in areas of concern, were organising “a series of walk-in clinics” to be opened across regional communities for teachers to access.
In August, teachers were told by the Department of Education they must be vaccinated before all students return to school.
“For those who refuse to be vaccinated, it will not be possible for us to maintain their employment in a school setting,” Department of Education secretary Georgina Harrisson told a Parliamentary Hearing last month.
UPDATE 11am, September 1
NSW Health has announced 32 new Covid cases were reported in western NSW to 8pm on Tuesday night.
In the Western NSW Local Health District there were 29 new cases and in the Far West Local Health District there were three new cases.
NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro gave a breakdown of the new cases and locations.
- Dubbo – 18
- Bourke – 3
- Blayney – 2
- Narromine – 2
- Bathurst – 1
- Orange – 1
- Walgett – 1
- Mudgee – 1
- Wilcannia – 3
Mr Barilaro said 30 motor homes would be set up in Wilcannia to help residents isolate.
Residents in Warren have also been urged to come forward for testing after fragments of Covid-19 were found in the sewage.
UPDATE 1pm, August 31
There were 58 new cases of Covid-19 reported overnight in western NSW.
A total of 54 cases were located in the Western NSW Local Health District, while four cases were recorded in the Far West Local Health District.
Dubbo had 32 new cases, Bourke 8, Wellington 5, Bathurst 5, Mudgee 1, Narromine 1, Parkes, 1, Brewarrina 1 and Wilcannia 4.
Across both health districts there have now been a total of 698 confirmed cases of Covid-19 since the outbreak began.
The bulk of the cases (471) have been in Dubbo.
Western NSW Local Health District chief executive Scott McLachlan said it was “another shocking day for western NSW”.
He said 17 patients were in hospital, including four in intensive care units in need of ventilation.
Across the Western NSW LHD about 133,000 people have now had a vaccine and about 63,000 are fully vaccinated.
UPDATED 5pm, August 30
A Dubbo man in his 50s is understood to be the first Aboriginal person in Australia to have died with Covid-19.
The man passed away at Dubbo Base Hospital on Sunday, with NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant saying he had “significant underlying health conditions”.
Western NSW Local Health District chief executive Scott McLachlan confirmed the man was Aboriginal and had not received any dose of a vaccination,
“We know that people will die if the vaccines don’t get in the arms,” he said.
“We know there’s a lot of misinformation out there and lot of opportunity for people to get vaccinated across western NSW. Don’t mess around any longer.”
The man’s death was reported on a day western NSW recorded it’s highest number of new Covid cases since the pandemic began.
Sixty new cases were reported across the western and far west health districts, with the highest numbers in Dubbo with 33 cases and Wilcannia with seven cases.
Mr McLachlan said in his district 65 per cent of all cases were among Aboriginal people and 40 per cent of all cases were young people aged under 20.
A record number of people – more than 11,000 – received their first dose of a vaccination last week in the district.
“That’s up five-fold from what we’d be typically vaccinating in previous weeks, around 2000 people a week previously,” Mr McLachlan said.
“That’s the benefit of having the ADF here but also being able to scale up with a lot more vaccine coming into the region.”
About 55 per cent of people across the district have had their first dose of a vaccine and 26 per cent were fully vaccinated, Mr McLachlan said
Only 6.3 per cent of Aboriginal people have been fully vaccinated.
“That’s still a much lower figure than what we would want to see, it has increased, it’s nearly doubled in the past three weeks so there’s some pleasing signs there,” Mr McLachlan said.
First dose vaccination rates in communities with large numbers of Aboriginal residents have increased massively with Bourke now at 42 per cent, Brewarrina at 58 per cent, Coonamble with 48 per cent, Warren at 51 per cent, Walgett at 40 per cent and Dubbo at 31 per cent.
Since the Delta outbreak hit western NSW three weeks ago there have been 581 Covid cases confirmed in western NSW.
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