The Murrumbidgee Local Health District is anticipating the next few months will have "the greatest impact on our health system" as NSW gradually reopens and large parts of the state leave lockdown.
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"We will see more cases [of COVID-19], and we will need to provide more care to more people," MLHD chief executive Jill Ludford said on Tuesday.
"Our safety plan is testing and early isolation, and that then reduces the transmission in the community and that then will help keep us safe and reduce the impact on the health system."
She is urging people to come forward for testing at the earliest onset of symptoms, no matter how mild, with only around 10,000 tests conducted locally in the past week - a reduction from previous weeks.
Over the long weekend there were four new cases of the virus reported in the MLHD; two in the Edward River LGA, one in Hilltops and one in Albury.
There was another case reported on Tuesday in the Federation LGA. The person's residential address is in that region, but the person was tested elsewhere.
Ms Ludford said investigations are ongoing and more detail will be provided "once contact has been made".
A total of 38 COVID cases have been reported within the health district during the current outbreak, including one in the Federation LGA, three in Edward River, one in Griffith, 25 in Hilltops and eight in Albury.
"We're reasonably confident that that case was linked with another outbreak hotspot," Ms Ludford said.
"There's quite a queue with the genome testing in the pathology laboratories and it does actually take some time to complete."
Ms Ludford said 29 patients are currently being cared for, with a majority receiving at-home treatment. There are three patients being treated for COVID-19 at Wagga Base Hospital, including one in intensive care who is not ventilated.
"There's also a patient who is very unwell with significant underlying conditions that was transferred to an intensive care unit in Melbourne," she said.
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Ms Ludford said the main concern around community transmission of the virus is in Deniliquin and Moama, with three cases announced so far and exposure sites listed.
"The next few days are going to be really critical for managing the outbreak across our region," she said.
"It is encouraging that we haven't seen further outbreaks here in Wagga, but we know with the vaccination rates in that Edward River LGA being low that we really do have a risk there and we really do need to increase those vaccination rates."
Ms Ludford was pleased to report that a number of local areas have reached a first-dose vaccination rate of 94 per cent, with the Murray River and Lachlan LGAs leading the way at over 95 per cent.
The Hilltops LGA has a first-dose jab rate of 96.6 per cent, closely followed by Cootamundra-Gundagai and Hay both on 94.5 per cent, and Federation on 94.2.
The populations of Coolamon, Griffith, Lockhart and Temora have also reached a 90 per cent single-dose vaccination rate.
Wagga's population this week reached 87.4 per cent with at least one dose, and 60.6 per cent fully vaccinated.
The broader Riverina region recorded a milestone of 60.1 per cent fully-vaccinated this week, with 87.6 per cent of the over-15 population having had at least one dose.
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