Five new cases of COVID-19 were reported in the Hunter on Thursday with the Deputy Premier saying he is "confident" the numbers will start to diminish from here.
All of the new cases recorded in the 24 hours to 8pm Wednesday were in Newcastle, with three in Jesmond and two in Elermore Vale. The Jesmond cases were all in isolation for their infectious period, while the two Elermore Vale cases were infectious while in the community.
Two of the Jesmond cases are linked to the Jesmond Grove aged care home, while the other cases were family or household contacts linked to previously reported cases.
Hunter New England Health has confirmed that some of the Elermore Vale cases have been linked to the disability support worker cluster reported on Wednesday.
Samaritans has confirmed that one of its disability staff members tested positive to the virus on August 8, and had been infectious while on shift at two Samaritans Supported Independent Living homes. However no further cases have come from that exposure. Both homes came out of their isolation period on Wednesday.
The additional five cases takes the total number of cases in the current outbreak to 150. Twenty-eight of those people are currently being cared for in hospital, but none are in intensive care.
A total of 681 fresh cases were added to the NSW total in Thursday's numbers after 119,000 people were tested across the state.
Deputy Premier John Barilaro said in Thursday's NSW update that more cases had been recorded after the 8pm reporting period in the Hunter New England, Southern NSW, Western NSW and Central Coast.
"My message to everybody continues to be to make sure we stay vigilant," he said.
Despite the new cases, Mr Barilaro told regional reporters things were looking positive for the Hunter. The regional lockdown has been extended to August 28, and Mr Barilaro said the NSW government would look at unlocking after that on local government area level.
"I will say even though there are five cases today, the Hunter New England Local Health District has complete confidence in the close contacts, in the contact tracing," he said. "We're confident even about Newcastle leading into next week that we'll start to see those numbers diminish."
Hunter New England Local Health District COVID-19 response Public Health Controller Dr David Durrheim said the reduction in daily numbers to five was "really gratifying".
Dr Durrheim also said the testing backlog that was causing lengthy delays in results in the region was also being cleared.
