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More NSW residents emerge from lockdown as cases trend upwards

  • Orange and Glen Innes to emerge from lockdown

  • Covid cases fall in southwest, western Sydney

  • Second major Covid outbreak at hospital

More NSW residents will emerge from lockdown at midnight tonight as the state records 1,063 new Covid cases, continuing a three-day upward trend.

Orange and Glen Innes will join Brewarrina, Gilgandra, Lismore and Albury and Narromine in coming out of lockdown this week, NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard announced on Thursday.

"No more major issues in Orange or Glen Innes. So they will come out of the current lockdown arrangements.

"There will be still standard restrictions and precautionary measures but they will be out and back to a more normal life as of midnight tonight."

Stay-at-home orders for Hilltops LGA, including Young, will be extended for a further seven days from Friday due to ongoing transmission in the area, NSW Health reports.

Members of the public exercise along Mrs Macquarie's Chair, in Sydney, Wednesday, September 22, 2021. Source: AAPq
NSW announced 1063 more Covid-19 cases on Thursday. Source: AAP

A further six people have died from the virus — four women and two men ranging in ages from in their 50s to 90s. The state has recorded 266 Covid deaths since June 16.

Mr Hazzard said 83.6 per cent of residents have received their first Covid vaccine and 55.5 per cent have had their second jab.

On Wednesday, NSW recorded 1,035 new Covid cases and five deaths with a change coming to the Service NSW app ahead of Greater Sydney's expected reopening next month.

Members of the public exercise at Brighton-Le-Sands beach in Sydney, Wednesday. Source: AAP
Mr Hazzard said 83.6 per cent of residents have received their first Covid vaccine. Source: AAP

Covid cases fall in southwest, western Sydney

Mr Hazzard said he was relieved to report that cases in the western Sydney and southwest Sydney epicentres were dropping.

He said of the new Covid cases announced on Thursday, only 220 were from western Sydney and 294 were from southwest Sydney.

He compared it to figures from September 11 when there were 444 new Covid cases in western Sydney and 490 in southwest Sydney, Mr Hazzard said.

"To drop to 220 is a really positive indicator," he said, thanking the communities for getting vaccinated and abiding by lockdown rules.

Despite the positive shift, Mr Hazzard said the 12 LGAs of concern will remain so until further health advice.

Second major Covid outbreak at hospital

Meanwhile, two dozen people at a southwest Sydney hospital have contracted Covid-19 in a week — the second major outbreak at the facility outbreak in recent months.

The exposures occurred across six wards at Liverpool Hospital, a South Western Sydney Local Health District spokesperson confirmed on Wednesday evening.

Those infected include 13 patients and two staff members in the orthopaedics ward, five patients in the geriatrics ward, three patients and one staff member in the neurology ward, two patients and one staff member in the renal ward, one patient in the cardiothoracic ward and an intensive care nurse.

All staff members who have tested positive for Covid are fully vaccinated, the spokesperson said.

The previous outbreak, sparked when a nurse unknowingly worked while infectious in late July, left 12 people dead.

With AAP

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