Mid-North Coast Covid-19: Health district providing assistance to Covid-positive patient
A Covid-positive woman is being cared for in isolation with her children after travelling to the Mid-North Coast region. Her health status provides no immediate threat to the community.
Mid-North Coast
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Mid North Coast Local Health District is providing care and support to a COVID-19 positive woman and her children who travelled to the region overnight.
The Mid-North Coast Local Health District Chief Executive Stewart Dowrick said the woman and her children are now isolating in special accommodation.
"This is not a local COVID-19 case and there has been no local transmission within our community," he said.
"A number of close contacts have been identified and are also in isolation. Public Health investigations are ongoing. We ask the community to please remain vigilant and continue to practise COVID-safe measures at all times."
The news comes as the region prepares to exit the state-sanctioned lockdown at Midnight.
Deputy Premier John Barilaro announced on Thursday that a stay-at-home order would be extended at MidCoast Council, a week after telling The Mid-North Coast News that he was 'confident' the region would not longer be in lockdown from September 10.
Both Kempsey and Port Macquarie however have been included in areas where the stay-at-home orders will be lifted. The easing of the orders will come in to effect from midnight.
Up to five visitors will be allowed in a home (not including children 12 and under), and up to 20 people will be able to gather in outdoor settings.
Hospitality venues can reopen, as can schools, under strict Covid protocols.
Changes to weddings, travel, outdoor recreation and other gatherings have also been applied. Masks will remain mandatory indoors including public transport, front-of-house hospitality, retail and business premises, on planes and at airports.
“Today, I can announce that while unfortunately many regional LGAs will remain in lockdown due to COVID case numbers, for other parts of the state, stay-at-home orders will be lifted allowing more freedoms for those communities,” Mr Barilaro said.
“This decision is based on NSW Health advice, and the LGAs which remain in lockdown will continue to be monitored and we will update those communities on a regular basis.
“My strong advice to everyone in regional NSW is to get vaccinated as soon as you can. Our communities need to continue to get vaccinated so that when NSW reaches 70 and 80 per cent, restrictions can ease significantly.”
Myall Lakes MP Stephen Bromhead said he was 'disappointed' by Mr Barilaro's decision to keep MidCoast Council in lockdown, because of one isolated case of a resident in Booral who did not contract the virus in the community.
"I am painfully aware of the detrimental impact for the economy and mental health of our constituents that the lockdown extension will have.," he sad.
"This is on top of surpassing drought, bushfires floods and Covid-19 '1.0.'
"I will continue to advocate for our community while we have zero community transmission. In the mean-time, I urge everyone to get vaccinated. Stay strong, we will get through this.
MidCoast Council is one of 38 across the state that will remain restricted to stay-at-home orders for at least another week.
Earlier
Barilaro's message to Myall Lakes: 'You are entitled to fight'
September 3, 2021
The Myall Lakes and other Covid-zero locations throughout the state look set to be relieved of their lockdown status come September 10 - four weeks after the state was plunged into stay at home public health orders by the state government.
Speaking on Thursday, NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro said regional communities such the Myall Lakes had every right to 'fight' for their freedom now that the data is starting to support the case for lockdowns easing.
"They [Myall Lakes] are entitled to fight," he said. "You are in a region where there have been no cases.
"We argued why we kept those regions in lockdown for a further two weeks to give us more confidence in the data, and I am feeling very confident in the data.
Mr Barilaro was responding to Myall Lakes MP Stephen Bromhead's calls on Thursday to ease restrictions so that businesses could re-open and the community could resume normality.
Mr Bromhead argued that while the lockdown was necessary in regions with cases, the Myall Lakes was an 'exception to this due to the fact there are no cases here.'
Without making any firm promises, Mr Barilaro said regional NSW would be provided more certainty on Thursday, September 9 about when life would resume to normal.
"Dr Kerry Chant said to me yesterday [Wednesday] that because there is a lot more Covid in the system, sewage surveillance could actually have more spikes of positive results that don't lead to a case," he said.
"I genuinely believe that big parts of regional and rural NSW will come out of lockdown."
Meanwhile, Mid North Coast Local Health District is urging locals with even the mildest of symptoms to get tested for Covid-19 following the detection of fragments of the virus in sewage samples taken from the Wauchope sewage treatment plant on 1 September 2021.
There are no new confirmed cases of Covid-19 anywhere in the Mid North Coast Local Health District.
The Wauchope Sewage treatment plant serves around 8,000 residents of Wauchope, Crosslands, Beechwood and Timbertown in the Port Macquarie-Hastings Local Government Area.
This latest detection follows positive sewage samples reported from Port Macquarie, Dunbogan and Bonny Hills earlier this week. Further testing has been undertaken at those sites and all have returned negative results on Friday.
Testing sewage can help provide early warning of undetected infections in an area. In this instance, where there are no known cases of Covid-19 this is of particular concern.
A list of the latest sewage detections in NSW is available at https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/nsw-covid-19-case-locations/sewage-testing and more information about the NSW Sewage Surveillance Program you can be found at: https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/covid-19/Pages/sewage-surveillance.aspxe.
NSW recorded 1,431 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm Thursday.
No new cases of community transmissions have been reported on the Mid-North Coast since last year.
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