UPDATE:
THE number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Hunter New England Health area has reached 200.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Hunter New England Health (HNEH) has announced on Monday afternoon an additional 11 confirmed cases across the region.
One of those is in Tamworth, which now has 12 confirmed cases.
Currently, 11 COVID-19 patients are being cared for across hospitals in the HNEH area, and six are in intensive care.
"Daily wellness checks continue to be undertaken with all other confirmed cases in the district," a HNEH spokesperson said.
The health district was contacting close contacts of the new cases, who were being asked to self-isolate for 14 days from last contact.
They would be contacted every day to check that they were well, and any contact who develops COVID-19 symptoms would be tested for the infection.
Of the cases in Hunter New England, 158 were acquired overseas, 26 were the contact of a confirmed case, and 11 were acquired locally, but the source of infection was unknown.
Five were still under investigation, authorities confirmed on Monday afternoon.
Where did the cases come from?
In NSW, an additional 127 cases of COVID-19 have been diagnosed, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in NSW to 1918.
There are 157 COVID-19 cases being treated in NSW, including 26 cases in intensive care and, of those, 13 require ventilators.
More than 50 per cent of the remainder of cases were being treated by NSW Health through Hospital in the Home services.
Cruise ships still account for many cases, with NSW Health confirmed 189 cases in the state came from the Ruby Princess, and 66 cases came from the Ovation of the Seas.
So far, four cases of COVID-19 in NSW had come from the Celebrity Solstice.
It comes as NSW Health has deployed physiotherapists to provide specialised care to patients with COVID-19.
More than 350 NSW Health physiotherapists with previous experience in intensive care undertook virtual training this weekend.
NSW Chief Allied Health Officer, Andrew Davison, said upskilling physiotherapists would help more efficiently wean patients off much-needed ventilators and improve patient positioning to optimise "oxygenation and patient outcomes".
"Physiotherapists, and all allied health clinicians, are an essential part of the multidisciplinary team and the collaborative response to treat and support patients with COVID-19," he said.
EARLIER:
TAMWORTH has recorded another confirmed case of COVID-19 in new figures released on Monday.
NSW Health released the figures, dated to late on Sunday night, showing the Tamworth Regional Council area had 12 confirmed coronavirus cases.
That is one up on Sunday's figures, and a rise of three cases since Friday, when the Tamworth tally stood at nine.
The rates of the virus remain steady across the New England North West on Monday, with numbers stable in Armidale, Inverell, Liverpool Plains, Tenterfield and the Glen Innes areas.
READ ALSO:
All of those areas have one or two confirmed cases, according to NSW Health.
Gunnedah, Gwydir, Moree, Guyra, Walcha and Uralla council areas remain free of any confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to NSW Health.
On the weekend, Hunter New England Health moved to clarify a recorded case in Narrabri wasn't quite so, after a patient incorrectly listed a Narrabri address when he tested positive.
On Saturday, a Tamworth man and a Boggabri woman were issued $1000 fines for breaching self-isolation orders by leaving a Hillvue home.
We have removed our paywall from our stories about the coronavirus. This is a rapidly changing situation and we to make sure our readers are as informed as possible. If you would like to support our journalists you can subscribe here.
