Hunter New England Health authorities have confirmed a drop in the number of people attending the district's emergency departments for minor ailments over the past month.
HNEH medical controller Dr Paul Craven told the Newcastle Herald that social distancing and better hand hygiene had reduced flu transmission in the community while limiting the spread of the coronavirus.
"As such, we are seeing less people through our EDs at a time where we normally start to see flu surge," Dr Craven said.
The decline in the number of people attending emergency departments is expected to be shown in the June quarter NSW Bureau of Health Information report.
Dr Craven said screening clinics at major hospitals had helped keep COVID-19 patients out of emergency department waiting rooms.
HNEH recorded no new coronavirus cases on Thursday for the sixth time in the past two weeks.
NSW added five cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Wednesday. The state's coronavirus death toll remained steady at 33.
Meanwhile, a 67-year-old woman received her second $1000 public health order fine in a week after allegedly telling police she had caught a train from Newcastle to Gosford but offered no reasonable excuse.
The woman had been issued with a warning last Thursday last week and a $1000 fine on Saturday.
In Tea Gardens, police issued a 52-year-old man with a $1000 public health order fine and charged him with drug offences after allegedly finding 10 kilograms of cannabis and a syringe containing methamphetamine in his car.
He allegedly admitted he was out of his home to buy drugs.
He was charged with supplying cannabis, two counts of drug possession and self-administering a prohibited drug.
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