Project hosts express their terror for regional NSW with Covid

With covid now making its way to regional NSW, the hosts of The Project express their concern for indigenous communities.

Hosts of The Project have discussed their concern for regional NSW now that they have been affected by Covid-19.

With regional and remote communities now dealing with the outbreak, the panellists, including Waleed Aly, Steve Price and Rachel Corbett wondered how they will cope without the same resources that the capital city has.

“It has gone up into Dubbo and now into the remote communities,” said Price. “They don’t have the health services out there that can cope with an outbreak of covid. So, the idea that you could put a ring of steel around Sydney and keep it there, that’s gone. It is now loose in the whole state.”

This had Aly pondered on the threat this has on, “indigenous Australians because they are at higher risk,” asking Corbett how she feels about it since she herself lives in NSW.

Waleed wonders if the outbreak will greatly affect indigenous Australian's. Picture: Channel 10

“I think everybody is worried about it,” she said. “I think everybody in New South Wales is so frustrated because well, at least in my world and in my life we’re all doing the right thing and it’s still getting out. So, you know, for a lot of people going for a test and waiting, it is not just an inconvenience. We see a lot of the disease spreading because people have to put food on the table. They can’t take time off. For some people, it is stressful and getting out into the regions where Pricey says there is not the support. It is terrifying. It really is.”

Rachel Corbett expresses her frustration for regional NSW. Picture: Channel 10

On Wednesday, it was announced that rural NSW shires will go into lockdown.

Walgett Shire LGA in the state’s north went into lockdown at 7pm on Wednesday night.

Two officials confirmed the lockdown restrictions to NCA NewsWire.

A health order was drafted on Wednesday evening after a person tested positive earlier in the day.

The person is believed to have been infectious since August 5, and was tested on August 7.

Officials fear there are more than a dozen people in the area who may have been exposed to the virus.

“The person is also known to have been in Dubbo and Bathurst during their infectious period,” Western NSW Local Health District said in a statement.

Additional Covid-19 testing sites will open from Thursday at 9am at Alex Trevallion Park in Walgett, and people have been told to enter via Castlereagh Highway and exit onto Pitt Street.

Walgett is located at an equal distance from Sydney and Brisbane, about a 7.5 hour drive from each city.

Elsewhere in western NSW, a testing site has also opened at the Dubbo Showground, and at the Covidsafe clinic at Manera Plaza on 77 Myall Street in Dubbo.

Bathurst also has an additional testing site, at the Mount Panorama testing clinic.