More than half of them were also children, Western NSW Local Health District (WNSWLHD) chief executive Scott McLachlan said.

In the 24-hour recording period to 8pm Monday, Orange reported its highest number of new COVID cases for the whole pandemic with seven cases.

The Orange LGA was also the only one across the whole WNSWLHD to report any new cases on Tuesday.

Mr McLachlan said that the seven new cases for Orange came from just two households. In total, four were household contacts and three had no links.

"That makes it nine cases since the 23rd of October and, so again, a warning for the community - there has been people infectious in the community," he said.

"We also know that none of those nine cases have been vaccinated, whether they're eligible or not, none of them have been vaccinated, and so they can more easily pick up COVID, more easily spread on COVID, and could potentially get sick off other people who are vaccinated."

While 91.5 per cent of the Orange LGA is now fully vaccinated (as of October 24) and western NSW has the highest rate of double doses among 12-15 year olds in the state (68.1 per cent compared with state-wide 51.3 per cent), Mr McLachlan said that across the health district there was still a "couple of thousand people" yet to receive their first dose.

"We know that children aren't eligible under the age of 12 years so it's important that everyone around them is vaccinated - so please think about the whole of your family," he said.

This comes after Bowen Public School was forced to close on Monday after a member of the school's community tested positive to COVID. In the weeks and months to come, Mr McLachlan said schools and childcare centres would continue to be impacted as children continued to be spreaders of the virus.

"The schools and preschools and childcare centres have been fantastic in trying to create an environment ... [where] they can minimise the spread of COVID if there is cases, [and by being] really quick to provide advice to parents," he said.

"There's always going to be opportunity for COVID to spread within a school, within households [and] within [school] buses. I think we just take some simple precautions, like we've been doing for the last 18 months."

The state recorded 284 fresh cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Monday.

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