WITH all the uncertainty and anxiety that has come with a seven-day statewide lockdown, it's easy to give in to the gloom surrounding us at the moment.
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But now is also a time for finding the good news where we can and the truth is our state still has a good story to tell regarding COVID-19.
While there's great frustration for all of us in seeing daily infection numbers steadfastly hover above the 300 and 400 mark, we need to remember it could easily be so much worse.
It was just a month ago that London, a city with a population roughly the same as NSW, recorded 50,000 new COVID-19 cases in a single day.
Over the course of the pandemic those sort of daily numbers have been recorded in many of the world's major cities during significant outbreaks while remaining unthinkable in Australia.
What that tells us is that while mistakes have been made and a small handful of people have done the wrong thing, overall the measures taken by NSW Health and the NSW Government have been working.
And that was a point well made by chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant during the daily 11am briefing on Sunday.
"Can I draw out to the community that [without] the work that is behind the scenes we would see escalating case numbers," Dr Chant said.
"If you look overseas you can see how Delta can spread so the fact we've actually held the numbers at the level we have is due to a lot of behind-the-scenes work.
"I want to say thank you to those health staff who are testing, the pathology providers, the public health team that is working day and night.
"But, we need to the community to stay with us and I cannot describe my concern level if we do not drive these cases down."
More good news came with confirmation our state has now passed the five million mark for COVID vaccinations with 50 per cent of the population receiving at least their first dose.
We're told the vaccine is not a magic bullet but, rather, an important "tool" to get us through this pandemic and out the other side.
We have reasons to be thankful even in these uncertain times.
Our state is doing well, but certainly it could do better. And it's up to all of us to play our part in making that happen.
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