Country mayors call for changes after NSW regional lockdown extension

Country mayors are demanding swift changes following the grim warning that regional NSW was a tinderbox ready to explode.

Country mayors are calling on the state and federal governments to ramp up both the rural vaccine rollout and sewage testing.

Parkes Shire Mayor Ken Keith, who chairs the Country Mayors Association of NSW, said the measures would help authorities stay ahead of the game instead of taking a spotfire approach to new outbreaks.

“The new Delta variant has put the governments’ wonderful efforts under strain, so that understandably we are now reacting to outbreaks rather than being proactive,” he said.

NSW Health officials are worried as Dubbo’s outbreak continues to grow, while sewage surveillance is indicating fragments of Covid-19 in various treatment plants from Tamworth down to Merimbula on the NSW far south coast.

Deputy Premier John Barilaro said regional NSW was a “a tinderbox ready to explode” with Covid cases, as he extended the lockdown to September 12.

Cr Keith has asked for more mobile clinics to be deployed to rural communities who have not had the chance to access the Covid-19 vaccine.

He suggested Australian Defence Force personnel could assist with operating the clinics.

Cr Keith also said more regular sewage testing could help prevent the virus from spreading in the regions.

Health officials run a sewage surveillance program which, according to the NSW Health website, covers the catchment areas of approximately 90 per cent of the population.

NSW recorded 1029 new local infections overnight and three deaths.

While Sydney remains the epicentre of the virus, western NSW is becoming a significant concern with the region recording 35 new cases overnight.

Dubbo is on high alert after it registered 25 new cases, while there were three in Orange, two in Bathurst, two in Bourke and one each in Forbes, Mudgee, and Parkes.

A person receives a dose of a Covid-19 vaccine at a newly opened vaccination hub in Dubbo. Picture: Belinda Soole/Getty Images

Mr Barilaro said the lockdown in regional NSW had therefore been extended to midnight on Friday, September 10. It was due to end this weekend.

“The decision to extend the lockdown is one to protect communities and protect the regions. We're sitting on a knife-edge. It’s a tinderbox ready to explode,” he said on Thursday.

“And I do apologise to those communities that don’t have cases today.

“But I put it this way: One of the reasons you may not have cases is because of the restrictions in place, minimising movement, because we know we’re a very interconnected community in regional and rural NSW.

“But we'll be working with those communities. We’ll be working with the health team for regional NSW.

“We are on a knife-edge in the regions. We need to take pressure off the health system.

“In the Illawarra-Shoalhaven region, we have two new cases overnight and they are in the Wollongong local government area,” he said. “On the Central Coast, again, two cases.”

NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro extended regional NSW’s lockdown. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

Merimbula is flagged as a potential new front for Covid after sewage surveillance of the area. Picture: David Rogers

Merimbula, a popular holiday town near Bega, 525km south of Sydney, has not had a reported case since a Melbourne teenager was holidaying there while infectious with Covid in July last year.

But Mr Barilaro said the amount of Covid detected in sewage at a treatment plants there, and in other regions of NSW, was alarming.

“I just want to touch on again the sewage surveillance in Tamworth, Merimbula, Cooma and Brewarrina; they are alarming.

“Sewage surveillance has been a significant tool we’ve used in the past in relation to identify cases. Rarely do we get it wrong.”