Suburbs of ‘great concern’ to health authorities as NSW outbreak grows

The suburbs ‘most concerning’ to NSW health authorities have again come from Sydney’s west, as the state’s outbreak continues to grow.

Greater Western Sydney is still battling the highest number of cases in NSW, as the state grapples with its ever-growing outbreak.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said western and south western Sydney contained the suburbs of “greatest concern”.

She said Guildford, Auburn, Greystones, Blacktown, Greenacre and surrounding suburbs still had the highest number of cases.

NSW deputy chief health officer Marianne Gale said the vast majority of cases recorded each day were from the 12 local government areas in lockdown.

She called for people who lived in those areas, particularly in the west, to come forward for testing and get vaccinated.

“The risk of seeding in other parts of the city remains and so we (need to) have a high level of vigilance, particularly for those areas that border the suburbs that we’re most concerned about at the moment — such as those in the Cumberland LGA, around Blacktown,” Dr Gale said.

“While that risk is concentrated in those areas at the moment, it is broader in those 12 LGAs because of the geographical proximity, as well as the links between different social groups.”

The Premier has announced the suburbs of “most concern”, all coming from Sydney's west, though Dubbo and its surrounding towns are also seeing a high rate of spread. Picture: Supplied/NSW Health

Across the Cumberland LGA, there have been a total of 2126 cases, with 1795 considered active — according to NSW Health data.

The suburbs of Merrylands, Guildford, Auburn and Greystanes are part of that area.

Greenacre and Bankstown are included in the Canterbury-Bankstown LGA which had 2617 cases, and 1955 of them active at the moment.

There are currently 436 active cases in Greystanes, which has a total number of 582 cases in the most recent outbreak.

Guildford has had 458 cases with 419 still infectious.

In Auburn, 217 are still active, while there have been a total of 268 cases.

There have been 422 infections in Merrylands, with 382 still active.

In Greenacre, 289 people have been infected with the virus and 246 are currently active.

Bankstown has had 396 cases and 298 remain active.

People are seen queuing to get a Covid-19 test at the Auburn Drive-through and Walk-in Clinic in Sydney. Picture: NCA Newswire /Gaye Gerard

The state recorded 818 new locally acquired cases on Monday, with at least 42 in the community while infectious.

Three people, all aged in their 80s, also died from the virus while in hospital.

But, Ms Berejiklian said society needed to start moving away from focusing on new cases numbers and look at vaccination numbers.

“While our transition is perhaps sooner and more starker than we had envisaged, once you get to 80 per cent of double doses, every state will have to live with Covid,” she said.

“You cannot keep Delta out forever. You cannot assume there will be zero cases even if you had zero cases today.

“I urge all of us to work together in New South Wales and across the nation to make sure we provide health and safety to all of our citizens as much as possible. But also we focus on what life looks like just weeks and months away.”

There had been 311,083 tests and 42,147 vaccinations conducted on Sunday.