Tamworth COVID-19: Hunter New England Health expecting testing spike as Sydney cluster grows, encourages regions to be cautious

A long line of cars queued up for drive-through COVID-19 testing in Tamworth on Monday, as locals raced to get swabbed.

"Now that the virus is in our own backyard, everybody is taking it very seriously again and we welcome that, and we welcome the fact people are coming to be tested," Hunter New England Health (HNEH) public health physician Dr David Durrheim told the Leader.

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Tamworth has been free of confirmed COVID-19 cases for more than nine months, and the majority of the current COVID-19 cluster cases are so far confined to the Northern Beaches.

But, Dr Durrheim warned the region's residents to act with great care.

With venues in Forster and Raymond Terrace on the NSW Health watch list, he said it's clear there is an ongoing risk the virus could catch a ride back to the country.

"At the moment, we don't know if we have inadvertently been shoulder to shoulder with someone from the northern beaches or Sydney so anyone that develops even the mildest of symptoms ... should get tested," he said.

Tamworth residents are technically still allowed to hit the dance floor, sink beers standing up, go on holidays, and have bigger house gatherings.

But just because we can, doesn't mean we should, according to the doctor.

"I think we should be living very similarly to what is now in place in Sydney," he said.

"We encourage wisdom and one thing we certainly know about regional NSW communities is that they are often a lot wiser than their city counterparts and they do sensible things."

Dr Durrheim said keeping a distance, avoiding crowds, wearing a mask, washing hands and avoiding high-risk locations like hair salons and clubs will help suffocate the spread of COVID-19.

"Many of those measures proven brilliantly last time around, we need to reinvigorate them," he said.

The HNEH doctor said he believed no one should be travelling between the city and the regions unless absolutely essential.

"We don't want to reintroduce virus into regional NSW, and the only way we can do that is to stop it spreading," he explained.

Dr Durrheim said he thought the city's low testing rates of the past several weeks would be "eclipsed many times over" by this week's swab statistics.

It is understood health authorities have the capacity to increase the opening hours of local testing clinics or set up new ones if a screening surge plays out.

Just 317 people were tested for the coronavirus in Tamworth last week, and a record low of 254 were screened the week before.

The Leader understands more than a dozen cars had already lined up ready to go when the drive-through screening service opened just after 7:30am on Monday.

Arrivals continued to join the queue in their cars throughout the day.

Tamworth hospital's emergency department can perform COVID swabs on people showing symptoms if clinics close for the festive season, including on Christmas Day and New Years Day.

A full list of screening services across the state can be found on the NSW Health website.

Dr Durrheim confirmed there had still not been a whiff of coronavirus detected in the city's wastewater on Monday, as weekly testing continues.

The COVID-19 cluster in Sydney has grown to 83, after NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced 15 new cases of community transmission in Monday's update.

Those 15 were all linked to the Northern Beaches cluster.

A record 38,578 tests were taken in the past 24 hours across the state.

Victoria, Queensland and South Australia have closed their borders to Sydney and Central Coast residents. Restrictions are in place in the ACT, Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory.

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Tamworth Respiratory Clinic

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Tamworth hospital clinic

Tamworth hospital emergency department

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