The streets are considerably quieter in Cobar this week with many residents abid-ing by the statewide lockdown measures announced by NSW Premier Gladys Beriji-klian on Saturday.
As of midday yesterday there still have been no COVID cases detected in the Cobar Shire, however the virus continues to edge closer to Cobar.
The Western NSW Local Health District (WNSWLHD) reports there are now 116 cases active in our Local Health District as of 8pm, Monday August 16.
(There were no detected cases as of last Tuesday when our last edition went to print.)
Of those 116 active cases, 107 are in Dubbo, four are in Walgett, three in Mudgee and two active cases are in Bourke.
Overnight two more cases have been con-firmed with one in Gilgandra and one in Narro-mine.
The WNSWLHD advises the positive cases in Gilgandra and Narromine have both been in isolation and were not in the community while infectious.
After the first positive cases in Dubbo were announced last Wednesday, COVID testing was ramped up in Cobar as anyone who had been in Dubbo since August 1 was asked to isolate as they may have been infected.
This resulted in long lines for testing at the Cobar Respiratory Clinic, the Cobar Health Service and also at Dr Indra’s surgery this past week and, while many have received their negative test results, there are still a number of people in the community who are anxiously awaiting their results.
The WNSWLHD reports 62,450 tests have been carried out in the LHD in the past four weeks. Federal Member for Parkes Mark Coulton advised yesterday that one case has also been detected in Broken Hill in the Far West LHD.
“This person has travelled in the community whilst infectious, including to Wilcannia.” He said a number of guests who attended a funeral in the community with the infected person may have been exposed to the virus.
This week State Member for Barwon Roy Bulter has ramped up his call for people living in the Far West to be vaccinated.
He said at the start of the month, we had one of the lowest percentages of people vaccinated at just 34.1 per cent.
Mr Butler continues to advocate for more vaccines to be made available to our area.
