On the worst day of the ten week COVID-19 crisis gripping NSW, Deputy Premier John Barilaro says crisis cabinet will make a decision on whether to to extend the lockdown in regional NSW "sooner rather than later".
He acknowledges the numbers are bad.
The lockdown in regional NSW will remain in place until at least Saturday and at least until September 30 in Sydney and surrounds.
It's been two weeks since Dubbo went into lockdown and 35 new cases there have bumped the total close to 300, with many cases in the vulnerable Indigenous community.
NSW notched up another grim record with 919 locally acquired cases to 8pm on Tuesday.
"Western NSW health district is still of great concern, with 49 new cases overnight," Mr Barilaro said on Wednesday.
As well as Dubbo's 35 cases there were seven in Bourke, five in Orange and one in Narromine and Walgett.
When asked if the government was poised to extend the state's lockdown for another six weeks Mr Barilaro said the crisis committee will be considering what happens after Saturday.
"We haven't made any decision around extension of these restrictions of lockdown for regional NSW but as you can see in the numbers - the central west isn't getting better, the far west, Hunter and New England - even though under control still has cases," he said.
There are 71 new cases in the Nepean Blue Mountains, 49 in western NSW, seven in the far west, eight in the Illawarra Shoalhaven, four from the Hunter New England and one from the Central Coast.
Mr Barilaro said crisis cabinet would take advice from Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant and "make a decision and will do it sooner rather than later".
"The reality is, it is about protecting lives and making sure we don't lose control in regional and rural NSW.
NSW Health says people in the affected areas throughout western NSW need to be extremely vigilant and get tested at the first sign of symptoms.
NSW Health's ongoing sewage surveillance program has detected fragments of the virus at the sewage treatment plants in Bateau Bay and Toukley on the Central Coast and Merimbula on the South Coast.
Mr Barilaro said authorities were closely monitoring sewerage in Merimbula, because of its proximity to Canberra.
"We know that many people from Canberra have moved to the South Coast.
"It's an area that has been quite clean from COVID for a long time and we are asking the community to come out and be tested immediately, even for the mildest of symptoms," he said.
