THE Tamworth area still has no new cases of COVID-19 with the infection rate dropped across the health district.
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Gunnedah has recorded its first case of coronavirus, in the latest round of 24-hour testing results to Thursday night.
Tamworth still has 12 confirmed cases of coronavirus - a figure that has not risen since Monday.
On Friday, Hunter New England Health (HNEH) confirmed seven extra cases across the district, with 241 patients in total testing positive to COVID-19.
HNEH said 10 COVID-19 patients are being cared for in hospitals, including six in ICU. So far, 66 people have recovered from the infection.
For the first time in the COVID-19 pandemic, the postcodes of local patients diagnosed with coronavirus have been revealed to the public.
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Of the 12 confirmed cases in the Tamworth local government area (LGA), new data on Friday from NSW Health showed at least one of those patients lives in the Attunga area. The rest are in the 2340 postcode.
One patient is residing in the Gunnedah 2380 postcode, after testing positive on Thursday. There is also at least one case of COVID-19 in the Liverpool Plains area, in the 2343 postcode.
HNEH confirmed 15 cases across the health district are under investigation for tracing, meaning authorities aren't sure where the patients contracted the COVID-19 infection. Ten other cases are being investigated to determine where the patients contracted coronavirus.
On Thursday, NSW Health revealed between one and four of Tamworth's cases were locally acquired from an unknown source.
New England MP Barnaby Joyce announced on Thursday that a dedicated office for COVID-19 testing would be opened in the city's CBD on Friday by a local pathology unit.
HNEH district's executive director of rural and regional health services Susan Heyman told Australian Community Media the district is ready for an increase in demand for high-level care as COVID-19 case numbers continue to rise.
Ms Heyman said local health professionals had been working on a pandemic plan since January, which includes patients from the northern part of the health district being transported to Tamworth hospital for critical care.
"[Patients] will be cared for locally and then, like any other condition, if they deteriorate, we will escalate them to another facility that can care for them at that higher level.
"That facility would be Tamworth Base Hospital which has the critical intensive care facilities that they might need."
Northern Tablelands MP Adam Marshall said in his electorate there are seven confirmed cases, which include two at Emmaville and three at Inverell.
All patients contracted the virus on cruise ships or overseas, with one case in Armidale contracted through community transmission.
A young person around the Mihi area in the Uralla Shire was confirmed to have COVID-19 after returning from overseas and is self-isolating.
As at 8pm on Thursday, there were 2389 confirmed coronavirus cases in the state and there have been 12 deaths in NSW.
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