Orange should not be considered alongside Dubbo when it comes to deciding when the COVID lockdown rules can be lifted.
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That's the view of deputy mayor Cr Glenn Taylor who said he would be raising the issue at Orange City Council's next meeting next week.
Cr Taylor said Orange's vaccination rates were high and its number of cases lower than Dubbo.
However, he said it seemed the state government was looking at the Western NSW Local Health District as one entity rather than considering regional cities within it separately.
We should oppose this in the strongest possible terms
- Cr Glenn Taylor, deputy mayor
"I think we should oppose this in the strongest possible terms," he said.
"Our vaccination rates are right up there.
"It has to be based on the number of cases [in Orange]."
He said the Orange business community was hurting from COVID restrictions and the threat of ongoing restrictions, largely based on what was happening elsewhere, was causing concern.
"It causes angst in the business community," he said.
"Let's be cautious. They're playing Russian roulette with people's lives."
He said Orange should be allowed out of lockdown when its number of cases was down.
"It is just wrong, they should not be punished,' he said.
Cr Taylor said there should be little travel between Orange and Dubbo.
"People should not be coming out of Dubbo," he said.
Cr Taylor said he was also concerned about the number of people coming from Sydney to Orange which he said needed to be tightened up.
He said that included removing an exemption which allows prospective real estate buyers from Sydney coming to Orange to look at property they intended to live in.
Cr Taylor said it was too risky to allow them into the regions when cases were so high in Sydney.
The latest NSW Health figures show there were 54 new cases in the WNSWLHD to 8pm on Monday.
However, none of those cases were in Orange.
The figures showed 32 of the cases were in Dubbo.
The previous day there were 51 new cases in the LHD with 33 from Dubbo and two in Orange.
According to NSW Health in the past four weeks Dubbo has seen 453 positive COVID cases.
Of those the source of infection for 215 cases in unknown.
Dubbo has seen 55,379 tests for COVID.
In Orange in the same period there have been 21 cases.
The source of infection for 16 cases is unknown.
In Orange there have been 14,372 tests.
This week Dubbo also recorded the first death in the region from the current outbreak of COVID.
An Aboriginal man from Dubbo also beaome the first Indigenous person to die from COVID-19 in Australia.
The man in his 50s, who was not vaccinated and had significant underlying health conditions, died at Dubbo Hospital.
Western NSW Local Health District chief executive Scott McLachlan said it was a stark reminder to the community of the need to urgently get vaccinated.
"This opportunity to get vaccinated is a lifesaver," he said. "It will save you, it will save your family, it will save your friends.
"The last thing we want to see is more deaths in western NSW."
While there has been a jump in the number of jabs administered to the region's Indigenous residents, with the number almost doubling in the past three weeks, the rate still lags significantly behind the region's broader population. Just 6.3 per cent of Indigenous people in the area are fully vaccinated.
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