Bathurst ready to welcome visitors when regional travel resumes

Regional travel was set to resume when NSW hit 80 per cent fully vaccinated, but the date was pushed back to November 1 to allow for areas with low vaccination rates to catch up.

As of October 24, 94.1 per cent of the Bathurst local government area's over 15 years population had received at least one dose, while 85.8 per cent were fully vaccinated.

There are more than 20 active cases of COVID-19 in Bathurst at the moment, many of which are household contacts.

READ ALSO: Updated: Full list of Bathurst region's COVID venues of concern

Mayor Ian North said he isn't overly worried about the number of cases at this stage, as the vaccination rates are high, and he's looking forward to opening up the city to visitors.

"I think everyone's going to welcome visitors, but at the same time we're going to make sure they're going to be wearing those masks and social distancing," he said.

"For a town to move forward, you've got to be able to move forward, open the doors, but in a controlled manner. And, what's good, NSW Health and the police and council will support to make sure we continue to get the message out there.

"I'm looking forward to seeing the tourists come here and enjoying the wonderful region and city that we do have."

The Western NSW Local Health District's Quality, Clinical Safety and Nursing executive director Adrian Fahy said there is some concern cases will rise from regional travel restrictions lifting, but he believes it is "logical" for Bathurst and the regions to open up now.

"We've got some big events on the forecast for Bathurst, particularly the Bathurst 1000. The number of infections in Sydney seem to be curtailing, while the regional areas seem to be increasing, so it's logical that we need to open up," he said.

"We've got these high vaccination rates to protect the community, we've got good surveillance, so it's logical that we open up, but we need to be incredibly cautious still."

READ ALSO: Calls for patience as testing queues cause disruption in CBD

He also said that he doubts the WNSWLHD will get to a point where there is zero cases.

"I'd love to see the LHD get down to zero, but I'm not expecting that, and the next few weeks and months we'll be quite concerned and watching the numbers on a daily basis," he said.

"We've seen a decreasing trend in the amount of infections, we've seen a decreasing trend in the amount of people that we've had to treat in hospital, however we remain incredibly cautious."

He encouraged people to keep coming forward for vaccination and to get tested if they are unwell.

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