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No further cases of COVID-19 have been found in the Murrumbidgee Local Health District [MLHD] as the state records more than 1000 new locally-acquired cases.
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Premier Gladys Berejiklian confirmed 13 more people have died, including a Dubbo woman aged in her 70s, bringing the death toll of the Delta outbreak to 241.
One person was in their 40s, two people were in their 50s, two people in their 60s, five people in their 70s, and three people in their 80s.
Just under 100,000 tests were carried out across the state in the 24 hours to 8pm Saturday, NSW Health said on Sunday, with 1083 new cases in the community.
More than one in six NSW children aged 12 to 15 have also received a first COVID-19 vaccine dose.
Some restrictions will ease in areas of concern, Ms Berejiklian announced, and public pools across the state will reopen in COVID-safe conditions on September 27.
In other news
"We're talking weeks before we get about 70 per cent double dose and I don't want anyone to let their guard down, this is not the time to kick back and it's over," the premier said.
"We are seeing the reproductive rate go below one, which means cases are showing, some areas are showing decline, but other areas are still growing."
However, modelling indicates the worst is still yet to come.
"I do want to stress that when we get to those weeks in October, we are going to see things we have never seen before in our hospital system," Ms Berejiklian warned.
"We will see images, practices, things done differently, because our system will never have to cope with the likes of that again, we hope, and that's why we have to be really careful when we start opening up because we don't want to see the system overwhelmed."
The Riverina is on alert after a string of cases emerged in the region this week, including four revealed in state figures on Saturday, and pings in sewage surveillance in local areas with no known cases.
They included a person in Albury and three previously-announced household contacts of a man aged in his 60s, who was transported to Wagga Base Hospital on Friday. All four are now being cared for in Wagga.
Testing has been deployed to the Hilltops region, which was locked down on Friday, and Griffith, where fragments of the virus were announced in sewage on Saturday.
Anyone in Griffith, or who has been in Griffith recently, should get tested if they have even the mildest of symptoms, and isolate until they receive a negative result.
The interstate, trans-Tasman situation
A raft of Riverina exposure sites have been listed in recent days, and include hotels, fast-food outlets, medical facilities and supermarkets.
The MLHD has implemented additional testing across the district for Sunday, in Young, Harden, Boorowa, Cootamundra, Deniliquin and Griffith.
Those seeking a test on Sunday can visit the Young Mosque on Moppity Road until noon, the Young Town Hall until 4pm, and hospitals at Boorowa and Harden between 1pm and 3pm and Cootamundra between 11am and 1pm.
Testing is also available in Riverside Drive in Deniliquin until 1pm, and in Griffith at the MLHD testing clinic in Yambil Street until 3pm. The clinic at the showground was open between 8am and 11am.
The MLHD's Wagga testing sites are accessible at Equex in Copland Street until 6pm and the respiratory clinic at 84-86 Murray Street until 4pm on Sunday.
The Laverty drive-through testing site in the Riverina Playhouse car park off Cross Street is open between 8am and 1pm over the weekend before reopening at 8am on Monday.
There are also concerns for Balranald, where COVID has been detected in the sewage but no recent cases are known.
Samples from Cowra, Dareton, South Kempsey, and Ballina treatment plants have also returned positive results for the virus.
Anyone in those areas who experience COVID-19 symptoms should come forward for testing.
More on the pandemic
Restrictions will ease in local government areas of concern from 12.01am Monday, which will bring restrictions almost entirely into line with other locked down areas.
"In the areas of concern, all the rules will be the same to the rest of Sydney, except for authorised workers and permits," Ms Berejiklian said on Sunday.
"So from tomorrow, very pleasingly, all areas of concern will be equalised, so relating to exercise, recreation or outdoor gatherings, everything will be the same across greater Sydney, except for the list of authorised workers and the associated permits."
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