Dr Ai-Vee Chua has been a GP in Dubbo for nearly two decades and said on Wednesday that the western region was "very near and dear" to her heart.

She spoke of the facts and figures surrounding the virus in the hope of dispelling incorrect information.

"Around one in 25 will get very sick with the virus and sick enough that they then need to go into hospital," she said.

"We're seeing about one in four in NSW who get left with a longer term problem following COVID infection in the first couple of weeks.

"That might be fatigue, shortness of breath, headaches and a whole other myriad of symptoms that are being reported that last three months, six months or longer.

"These are the real facts and figures. There are some elements of misinformation being circulated on social media channels but these are the figures we are seeing in NSW right now."

She also spoke of vaccinations and how they can prevent serious illness or death in people who do catch COVID.

"The two vaccines we do have in Australia are very good vaccines, there's no doubt about it," she added.

"Both the Astra Zeneca and Pfizer vaccines have been rigorously tested right across the world and in Australia.

"It's reassuring to know that one dose of either vaccine will give you 70 per cent protection, two to three weeks after that first dose and that will protect you from that serious illness that will land you in hospitals, needing to go on breathing machines and death from COVID. In a few doses you'll actually have a 90 per cent protection against serious infection from COVID."

Scott McLachlan is the chief executive of the Western NSW Local Health District and was asked if he thought protests which took place in Orange and around the region would lead to a rise in numbers.

"Honestly it scares the hell out of me that people are wandering around without a mask on, thinking that it's ok and knowing that they could be infectious," he said.

"It's just idiotic, I just don't understand why people would think it's ok to do those things.

"It's a total disregard of their lives, the lives of their families so could I ask for a bit of calm and common sense at the moment.

"I know it's tough with the stay at home orders. We're getting there. It's never going to go away in our communities but I'm so concerned that people are taking other's lives into their hands."

The question on the mind of a lot of people is when will the lockdown be over.

According to Dubbo MP Dugald Saunders, that will all depend on case numbers.

"We need to stabilise the numbers. If the numbers keep going up it's very hard to say we can throw the doors open again.

"We need numbers to plateau and for them to come back in the other direction before there's an opportunity to have some flexibility in our lives again. Part of that is making sure we test and find those cases as quickly as possible, because the sooner we can identify it, the sooner we can isolate that person.

"Until we can hit that point where everyone is doing everything an individual can to stop it, then we're facing that inevitable scenario of rolling numbers every day."

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