Two exposure sites have now been linked to a positive COVID-19 case in Cooma, in southern New South Wales.
Yesterday, NSW Health announced a positive case was confirmed in Cooma and another in Batemans Bay.
They are the first COVID-19 cases connected to Greater Sydney's outbreak in the South East, and the first cases of coronavirus detected in the region in more than a year.
The cases were recorded after the 8pm cut-off period and will be officially included in today's numbers.
Anyone who visited the Shell West Cooma on August 30 between 7:45am and 8:15am or the STIHL garden tools shop in Cooma on Sharp Street on September 1 between 9am and 10am is now considered a casual contact.
Executive director of Southern NSW Local Health District Liz Mullins said the casual contacts needed to get tested and isolate immediately until a negative result was received.
“You need to go and get tested and stay home until Public Health contacts you," she said.
Meanwhile, the health district says contact tracing has been slowed down in Batemans Bay because the positive case is "really sick".
"I'm confident that information will be out sometime today."
The health district said all known close contacts to the case have already been contacted.
Pop-up testing
A new testing clinic opened at Hanging Rock on Beach Road in Batemans Bay at 8:00am this morning and testing is also available at the Cooma Showgrounds on Cromwell Street.
Snowy Monaro Mayor Peter Beer is reminding the local community to adhere to the public health orders to mitigate further spread of the virus.
"I have seen a lot of young people in our area that are walking around — quite a few actually — without masks and gathering around the foreshores of Lake Jindabyne," he said.
The latest cases come after multiple positive sewage detections across the South East in the past fortnight.
