Moree coronavirus outbreak spreads: Moree outbreak hits 70 after just five days as Tamworth records 2 cases

Hunter New England Health (HNEH) confirmed figures released earlier on Saturday by local MP Adam Marshall.

In the New England region, 47 people have been confirmed as new cases of COVID-19, according to the Saturday statistics. There are 73 new cases across the HNEH area.

Inverell recorded 21 new cases, with 20 in the Moree Plains local government area, 4 in Tamworth and 2 in Armidale.

Moree Mayor Katrina Humphries said the community had gone from just a pair of confirmed cases on Monday to over 70 on Friday.

"We now have 70 people out of 10,000 [Moree residents]. That is .07 per cent [infected]. If Sydney had .07 per cent infection rate in 5 days that would be tens of thousands of people," she said.

"That's just a perspective that I like to put on it."

Cr Humphries blames a "tardy" contact tracing effort for the huge increase in cases.

She went so far as to urge businesses to shut and residents to stay home in an announcement on Thursday night, though the council does not have the authority to order anyone to do so.

Cr Humphries said HNEH had sent about 15 medical and community support staff to help serve at testing and vaccination clinics and to relieve hospital staff.

The medical staff volunteered for the job.

Member for Northern Tablelands Adam Marshall people to focus on the "good news" that only one person was hospitalised, and said the high case numbers were less significant than a lack of serious cases thus far.

The Inverell resident is currently at the Tamworth hospital, but are not being ventilated, and are not in the city's intensive care unit, which is currently free of COVID-19 cases.

HNEH public health physician Dr David Durrheim urged people to get vaccinated and come forward for testing if they have even the mildest symptoms.

Dr Durrheim urged people currently isolating with coronavirus to call for an ambulance should they experience a deterioration in their condition, including breathlessness or dizziness.

Earlier

An outbreak of COVID-19 in the New England has dramatically escalated, with the region's first patient in hospital and dozens more cases identified.

That's according to Northern Tablelands MP Adam Marshall, who revealed the Moree Plains local government area had added another 20 cases in the latest statistics.

There were also 21 new cases in the Inverell local government area, 11 of them in the town, 8 in Tingha and one each in Delungra and Ashford.

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Armidale added another two cases.

All told there are 121 active cases in the Northern Tablelands electorate, Mr Marshall said.

Just one coronavirus patient, a resident of Inverell, has been hospitalised.

They are currently at the Tamworth hospital, but are not being ventilated, and are not in the intensive care unit, which is currently free of COVID-19 cases.

Mr Marshall people to focus on the "good news" that only one person was hospitalised, and said the high case numbers were less significant.

He said the spread of the virus is "to be expected as things increasingly open up and more people from without and without our region move around".

"It's also what the authorities planned for and why we all went out and got vaccinated - so we can live with and alongside COVID-19 and not hide away from it in continuous lockdowns."

Additional health staff have been brought into Moree to support the ramped up testing and vaccination effort at the hospital and Pius X.

There are no cases in the Glen Innes Severn, Gwydir or Uralla local government areas, he said.

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