Bathurst residents urged to get tested as city records sixth COVID-19 positive case since Friday

Bathurst recorded its sixth COVID-19 by Sunday morning, with a total 36 new cases across the Western NSW Local Health District reported in the 24 hours up to 8pm on Saturday night.

The Western Advocate was aware of five COVID-19 cases in the city, with Bathurst MP Paul Toole confirming a sixth positive case on Sunday morning.

READ MORE:

"Today it has been announced that Bathurst has four more COVID cases. This takes our COVID-19 cases to six," Mr Toole said via his Facebook page.

"If you have any flu like symptoms you need to get tested immediately, irrespective of where you have been in the community.

"Symptoms include fever, cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, runny nose, loss of taste or smell."

Deputy Chief Health Officer Dr Marianne Gale was particularly concerned with Orange, with two cases reported to 8pm on Saturday evening, followed by another four cases overnight.

"Our particular concern for Orange, and a call out to the people of Orange to come out and get tested, is that while we had two reported to 8pm to last night, we've had an additional four cases, making that a total of six," she said.

All up, NSW recorded 830 new locally acquired cases up until 8pm on Saturday night, with a massive total of 206,193, however this figure was boosted by a backlog of entries.

Dr Gale believes the true figure for the 24-hour period was closer to 140,000.

Health Minister Brad Hazzard said he was pleased with the vaccination rates in NSW, labelling it as one of the fastest in the world.

"I am pleased that the vaccination rate in NSW is quite extraordinary," he said.

"I wanted to thank the residents of NSW to come out in such great numbers to be vaccinated. I'm pleased to announced NSW has one of the highest rates of vaccinations in the world."

Two of the reported COVID-19 cases were school students, one a Bathurst High Campus student that had no contact with anyone from the school in recent days and the other from Bathurst Public School.

A member of the Busby Medical Practice staff returned a positive COVID-19 result, with the centre closed for deep cleaning.

A person who attended Great Beginnings Bathurst on Tuesday, August 17, also returned a positive COVID-19 test.

NSW Health is encouraging anyone in the community who has even the mildest symptoms to be tested as a precaution.

Bathurst Laverty Pathology: Drive-through clinic, Mountain Straight, Mount Panorama. Appointments not required. Open Monday-Sunday, 8am-4pm.

Bathurst Base Hospital: Appointments are not required. Open Monday-Sunday, 9am-4pm.

Bathurst Respiratory Clinic: 1470 Panorama Avenue, Ochre Health, CSU appointment required. Open Monday-Sunday, 9am-4pm.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: