Up to 8pm on Tuesday, only six cases were recorded across Western NSW and none in Orange.

Asked whether he thinks the first dose rate in the west - of which the "vast majority" of LGAs have achieved 80 per cent rate - has contributed to the sharp fall, chief executive of the Western NSW Local Health District Scott McLachlan said: "I think what we are seeing is a fewer number of people getting really crook from COVID because of vaccines.

"There's no doubt we're seeing some of the impact of earlier rates of vaccination, particularly in the elderly and frail people in the community. It's been pleasing to see we haven't seen a lot of impact in that community.

"A lot of the cases we saw in the early phase of this were young children and people under the age of 20 and 30, so we know that people in that age group both weren't vaccinated and don't get as seriously sick as the older generation."

He added that while it was time for cautious optimism, he reminded people that an outbreak could take off at any minute.

"We know that the first dose of vaccine is around 60-70 per cent effective in stopping people getting really crook, but it does take the second dose and a period of around 2-3 weeks beyond that second dose to have full effect," he said.

"These are some of the things that we really need to be aware of is it's not the immediate time when you get the dose in the arm that you're magically protected.

"It sort of feels like the eye of the storm. We don't want to get too complacent about this. We know that it can come back to bite us very quickly. We've seen some of the super spreader events where people have been out in the community, sometimes unknowingly spreading COVID."

NSW recorded 1,259 new locally acquired cases of COVID in the 24 hours to 8pm Tuesday night.

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