Walgett Shire, seven other LGAs in western NSW to lock down over coronavirus outbreak

Eight rural NSW areas have been forced into a snap lockdown after a man tested positive for Covid-19.

Eight local government areas and one prison in western NSW have been forced into a snap lockdown after a man from a remote outback town tested positive to Covid-19.

The local government areas of Bogan, Bourke, Brewarrina, Coonamble, Gilgandra, Narromine, Walgett and Warren went into a week-long lockdown at 7pm on Wednesday.

The 27-year-old man returned to Walgett after he was released on bail from the Bathurst Correctional Centre earlier on Wednesday.

He had been tested on August 7 when he entered custody and was granted bail on Monday.

He received a positive Covid-19 test result after leaving the prison to return to Walgett, travelling while he was unknowingly infectious.

A Corrective Services NSW spokeswoman said the jail was placed into a precautionary lockdown on Wednesday, including the isolation of a number of inmates who had come into contact with the man.

Contract tracing is under way for affected staff, who will be directed to go for immediate testing and isolate in accordance with NSW Health advice, the spokeswoman said.

Barwon MP Roy Butler said it wasn’t yet known where the man had contracted the virus or which communities he may have visited on his way home from the jail.

Mr Butler said rural communities were at “huge risk”.

“I’m extremely concerned about the presence of Covid-19 in communities like Walgett,” Mr Butler told NCA NewsWire.

“Hopefully the spread can be contained. There is a low rate of vaccination and a lack of comprehensive medical facilities, so there is a huge risk in regional NSW.

“The decision was only taken at about 6pm and the lockdown was going to start at 7pm. It left very little time for communication.”

A media statement was sent out just two minutes before 7pm, after a health order was rapidly drafted earlier in the evening.

The news sparked anger in regional communities, with people on social media calling for harsher lockdown restrictions to stop the spread of the virus from Sydney.

Others called for stay-at-home orders to be enforced across the state, rather than the spot lockdown approach taken by the NSW government.

“Surely when we see that these ridiculous mini lockdowns in different places every day are not working, we could stop doing what she says and voluntarily lock ourselves down?” one person wrote on social media.

“After 7 weeks it’s clear that the measures are just not working … unsurprisingly people are not listening anymore,” said another.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian has stared down calls for a “ring of steel” hard border around the city, despite infectious people leaving the city for regional NSW and taking the virus as far north as Byron Bay.

Greater Sydney residents are not supposed to travel more than 10 kilometres from their homes unless in a few exceptional circumstances.

Officials believe the Walgett man was infectious from August 5 and fear there are more than a dozen people in the area who may have been exposed to the virus.

NSW Health said the stay-at-home orders for the eight western NSW LGAs would be in place until August 19.

“The rules for this area will be the same as those already in place across Greater Sydney, as well as Dubbo, Tamworth, Northern Rivers, Armidale, Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Maitland, Port Stephens, Singleton, Dungog, Muswellbrook and Cessnock.

“Everyone in these areas must stay at home unless they have a reasonable excuse to leave. They also cannot have social visitors in their home from outside their household, including family and friends.”

“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.