As it was confirmed the ongoing COVID-19 crisis has leaked into regional NSW, the latest figures also revealed Orange's testing rate appears to have hit record levels recently.
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NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian confirmed a new case in Goulburn was one of 89 reported across the state up to 8pm on Monday, also revealing almost 50,000 tests were conducted in the previous 24 hours.
There remains no confirmed cases in Orange, where across the last four weeks the testing rate appears to have reached its highest level, even exceeding those recorded after notable scares in the city.
According to NSW Health's figures in the last four weeks more than 4,500 tests have been conducted in the Orange area at an average of 1,132 per week, which equates to 107 people being tested for every 1,000 in the city.
The current rate is more than double that of both the four weeks prior and numbers recorded from the same time last year, but it also eclipses testing rates in the month immediately after three of Orange's biggest virus scares.
The current rate of testing is 20 per cent higher than it was after a confirmed case of COVID-19 in the region was linked to Charles Sturt University's Orange campus, with 3,577 tests conducted in the four weeks afterward.
It's similarly higher than the rate recorded after a person who tested positive visited Orange Central Square Shopping Centre in late December, that case was subsequently linked to the much-maligned Northern Beaches cluster.
The numbers of tests immediately after it was confirmed a man who tested positive had dined at Birdie Noshery and Drinking Est in early January only reached two thirds of the current rate, with some cross-over from the December figures.
Since the pandemic began testing capacity across the city has improved and rates have steadily risen in line, which is also evident when comparing the current rate to levels recorded during last year's lockdown.
At the pandemic's height in 2020, which resulted in Orange being included in lockdown orders on March 31, the city topped Western NSW's testing rates. Even so, between the beginning of the pandemic and April 30 last year just 1,200 tests were conducted.
The number of tests conducted across the state on Monday increased by almost 4,000 which Chief Health Officer, Dr Kerry Chant said was promising. In Tuesday's update, she also reiterated her "sense or urgency" in encouraging people to get vaccinated.
"It is critical that we don't become complacent," she said.
"It's pleasing to see those test numbers remaining high but we do have more capacity, so we're suggesting and recommending a lot more testing ... so we can flush out any unrecognised cases and block those chains of transmission."
"The numbers are holding high in terms of the rates of testing, we desperately need that to continue," NSW Premier Gladsy Berejiklian added.
Since the pandemic began Orange has recorded 13 confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to Western NSW LHD's figures, while there has been 48 across the entire region.
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