The seventh case of COVID detected in Orange during the most recent outbreak is not connected to six workers from Western Sydney who have also tested positive for the virus, the local health boss has said.
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Speaking on Monday, Western NSW Local Health chief executive Scott McLachlan said that he was "pretty confident" that the six workers picked up COVID in Western Sydney.
'We also know they've been working and in Orange over the last week and ten days," he said.
"We do need to assume they've been infectious in the community and there could be some broader spread across the community of Orange and surrounding towns, it could even be prior to the stay at home orders coming into affect.
"The seventh case that we identified in Orange, we don't believe is connected to the other six. We do also believe the person has been infectious in the community, so it's another signal to the community of Orange and surrounding, please come and get tested. It is quite urgent."
This means it is not believed the seventh person was also a worker from Western Sydney.
There were around 1200 COVID tests taken on Sunday in Orange and although numerous locations have been identified as venue of concern, Mr McLachlan said he did not have details on where the six people from Western Sydney were working.
"We've worked through as much of the contact tracing as we can to get the locations of concern identified and we are concerned that there may be others that haven't come out of that contact tracing," he said.
"Please get tested, particularly before the snow sets in."
All six locations in Orange that have so far been identified as being visited by at least one COVID-positive person have been listed as casual contact sites.
This means that anyone who attended this venue is a casual contact and must get tested and self-isolate until they receive a negative result, rather than having to isolate for 14 days regardless of a test result.
Speaking of how these locations are determined as 'casual' or 'close', Mr McLachlan said: "The first thing our contact tracing team do is identify if we can lock down all of the contacts and people that were in a facility.
"That means we can be confident we have got to everyone with a text message and a notification that they were in a location as a close contact or a casual contact. If all of that can happen, there's no reason for us to go our publicly to notify anyone that there's an issue of concern.
"In big facilities like a Woolworths or a Bunnings, where we're sure that people have been wearing masks, we're sure that there's been some decent social distancing which can come from CCTV footage and a range of other things, including the layout of the facility and who was in the facility at the time."
Since 8pm on Sunday, five cases has been identified in Parkes. These will be formally reported in tomorrow's numbers.
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