Western, south-west Sydney still recording highest number of COVID-19 cases

NSW Health’s Dr Jeremy McAnulty has urged residents to come forward for testing with the majority of new local COVID-19 cases continuing to emerge in western and south-west Sydney. Despite recording high first-dose vaccination rates, Dr McAnulty said the suburbs of Auburn, Greenacre, Merrylands, Liverpool, Punchbowl, Granville, Bankstown and Guildford remained of particular concern to contact tracers. Elsewhere, health officials have homed in on parts of regional and rural NSW, particularly southern NSW and the Mid North Coast after fragments of the COVID-19 were detected in the sewerage systems of Byron Bay, Bangalow, Jindabyne, Harden, Moruya, Yass, Port Macquarie, Trangie, and Young. It comes as the state recorded eight more COVID-related deaths, with 1,164 patients currently in hospital.