A
few locals have wondered aloud
why there is so little in the mainstream media concerning the
Delta Variant Outbreak in Northern NSW. One or two have said
‘It’s almost as if we’ve been forgotten’ or words to
that effect.
There
is no clear explanation for the one-moment-hot-one moment-cold
approach taken towards this particular parcel of regional New
South Wales.
Though
I rather suspect media are not being overly encouraged to look at the
wider regional picture.
Because
this wider picture
shows that until the NSW Government began
to ramp up the push to ‘live with COVID’, began to elaborate on
the ‘freedom’ it was going to give the Greater Sydney area and
played about with public health orders so that, perhaps accidentally,
it increased population mobility at a time when this carried risk, there were still rural and regional local government areas such as 6 of the 7 in Northern NSW which had not
ever experienced residents
in their own
communities becoming
infected with either the original
SARS-CoV-2 virus or the more infectious Delta Variant whilst
going about their daily lives.
Focusing
on just this one region for even a short period might make
other rural and regional areas across NSW and, their local government areas, consider
exactly what did an overly compliant state government forcefully impose on them
to keep Greater Sydney and industry quiet in the lead up to a federal
election.
OVERVIEW
There
are seven local government areas in north-east NSW and like a number of other coastal zone councils they all recorded cases of COVID-19 by March 2020.
Byron
Bay
recorded its first contacts
with COVID-19 from 14 March
2020 through to 8 April 2020 – all 16 cases were overseas
sourced infections with no community transmission in the local
government area. However, on 25
July 2021 the
first
2 confirmed locally
acquired cases
were
recorded –
just 39 days after the Delta Variant began in Sydney.
COVID-19
entered Tweed
Shire
on the NSW-Qld border
on or about 18 March 2020, when both a confirmed
interstate-sourced case & a locally acquired case with
no links to a know infection were recorded. From then until
April 2021 a further 16 COVID-19 cases were recorded as overseas
sourced and there was no apparent community transmission. Tweed’s
first locally acquired case
that
was clearly linked to
community
transmission was recorded on 30 September 2021 - just under 4
months after the Delta Variant Outbreak began in Sydney.
Clarence
Valley recorded its
first confirmed COVID-19 cases began
on 20 March 2020.
However, all these 8 cases were from overseas and did not infect
local communities. From 29 March 2020 until 4 October 2021 there had
been no confirmed COVID-19 cases recorded in the valley. Its
first confirmed locally acquired cases were recorded on 5 October
2021 – just under 4 months after the Delta Variant Outbreak
began in Sydney.
Ballina
recorded its first
COVID-19 case on 22 March 2020. The next day saw its first
locally acquired COVID-19 infection, followed by another 12 confirmed
COVID-19 cases over the next 15 months, of which only 2 were locally
acquired. On 1 July 2021 an overseas sources COVID-19 case was
recorded in Ballina, but it wasn’t until about
three months later on 6
October 2021 that locally acquired COVID-19 cases began to occur in a
distinct community transmission pattern – just under 4
months after the Delta Variant Outbreak began in Sydney.
Lismore
City
recorded its
first confirmed case of COVID-19 on 23
March 2020 and it was an overseas sourced infection with the
next 5 cases up to 15 July 2020 being 5 overseas sources & 1
interstate sourced infection. Up to that point there was no community
transmission in the local government area. It remained that way for
the next 7 months. Then on 15
September 2021 the very first confirmed case of locally acquired
COVID-19 was recorded – 15 months after the Delta Variant
Outbreak began in Sydney.
Richmond
Valley was
first introduced to COVID-19 on 31 March 2020
when an overseas sourced COVID-19 case was recorded. A
second overseas sourced COVID-19 case was recorded on 28 April 2020.
Then the virus disappeared from view. It
wasn’t until 28 September 2021 that the first confirmed locally
acquired COVID-19 case was recorded in the local government area
– a little over 3 months after the Delta Variant Outbreak began in
Sydney.
The
notable exception to all this was little Kyogle.
It had no overseas, interstate or
from elsewhere in NSW, COVID-19 cases recorded in the local
government area at all – never ever – and up to 27 October 2021
still doesn’t. Its first confirmed locally acquired case was
recorded on 28 September 2021 – over 21 months after SARS-CoV-2 first entered Australia and over 4 months after the
Delta Variant Outbreak began in Sydney.
NOTE:
As data is regularly reviewed, NSW Health from time to time removes
or otherwise alters its COVID-19 notification records. The numbers
and dates cited in this post were accurate up to 26 October 2021.
BACKGROUND
According
to NSW Health in the week ending 25 October 2021 there were
2,207 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 and 4,141 active cases.
In
that time period every single local health district contained
confirmed COVID-19 cases and virus fragments were found in 109
sewerage treatment plants.
As
at 26 October 2021 51 NSW hospitals had 321 inpatient cases of
COVID-19 & 21 of these hospitals also had COVID-19 patients in
intensive care units. There was also an additional 2,361 infected
people being treated outside of a hospital setting.
As
of 8pm on Tuesday, 26 October 2021 there have been 122 confirmed
cases of locally acquired COVID-19 infection in the Northern NSW
Local Health District (NNSWLHD) since on or about 13 September 2021
when the SARS-CoV-2 Delta Variant first entered north-east New South
Wales from the Greater Sydney area.
As
yet the infection numbers are relatively low.
The
confirmed cases location breakdown in Northern NSW between 13 September & 26
October 2021 appears to be:
Tweed
Shire
- 6 cases + 1 infection contracted elsewhere in NSW
Byron
Bay
- 7 cases
Ballina
- 11 cases
Kyogle
- 16 cases
Richmond
Valley
- 20 cases
Lismore
City
- 25 cases
Clarence
Valley
- 36 cases.
