The mayors of Griffith and Hilltops councils are urging the community to remain vigilant against COVID-19, after four cases emerged in Young and sewage detection in Griffith has come back positive.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Griffith Mayor John Dal Broi said he was "disappointed, but not surprised" that the sewage sample had come back positive.
He said there is often an influx of people in Griffith between farming activities and infrastructure and development projects.
The mayor also said he doesn't know what the source of the positive fragments might be.
"You'd like to think it's someone just passing through, but we just don't know," Cr Dal Broi said.
"We can't shy away from it, we've just got to accept it and do what we can."
His message for the community is to get tested, and also to get vaccinated.
"We don't want to go back into lockdown, so let's all do the right thing for our community," he added.
Hilltops Council mayor Brian Ingram said the town of Young has been feeling "pretty realistic" about having to go back into lockdown, after four cases of COVID-19 were identified.
The group are being cared for at Wagga Base Hospital, and contact tracing remains ongoing.
"Until we know exactly where the problem is, we can never fix it," Cr Ingram said, urging as many people to come forward for testing as possible to help identify the source of infection.
There have been pop-up testing and vaccination hubs in Young over the weekend, and the mayor said the turnout has been "fantastic".
IN OTHER NEWS:
"On the first day, Friday, there was over 1000 people who went through the two [testing] places," he said, with a "steady stream of people" also coming forward to be vaccinated.
A large number of people getting tested via the drive-through pop-up are staff or students from Young High School, which was told to close for contact tracing and cleaning after NSW Health advised a member of the school community tested positive for COVID.
With the local government area going back into lockdown, Cr Ingram said it was disappointing for everyone, including businesses, but that the "communities been pretty resilient".
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark dailyadvertiser.com.au
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Google News
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters