NSW RECORDS 1284 COVID-19 CASES, AS A CENTRAL COAST WOMAN IN HER 20s DIES WITH COVID

New South Wales has recorded 1284 new COVID-19 cases and 12 further deaths – including two people in their 20s – as the state announces a new home quarantine trial.

Returning Australians who have had both doses of a coronavirus vaccine will be able to quarantine at home for seven days under the trial, instead of spending two weeks in hotel quarantine.

“It’s really opening the doors to what home quarantine will look like for us moving forward,” NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.

The trial will involve approximately 175 people, including Qantas air crew, over four weeks.

Of today’s cases, 27 are from the Central Coast – 15 were infectious while in the community.

A woman in her 20s, who wasn’t vaccinated, died with COVID-19 at Gosford Hospital.

She contracted the virus at a Life Without Barrier group home, where she lived in Wyong.

While, a man in his 60s died with COVID-19 at John Hunter Hospital.

“Behind every death is a family, is a group of people who are mourning, and our thoughts must go to them. It’s a constant reminder how deadly and sinister and how contagious this disease is,” said NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.

There were 24 new infections in the Hunter New England area – 12 were infectious while in the community.

The two cases in Singleton were isolating and pose no risk to the community.

The bulk carrier, Spirit of Ho-Ping, which has 11 covid-positive seafarers onboard, remains off the coast of Newcastle.

It was stopped from coming in to dock at Newcastle over the weekend, after the cases were detected.

On Wednesday, a highly-trained retrieval medicine specialist boarded the ship by helicopter and assessed all of the 21 crew on board.

NSW Health’s ongoing sewage surveillance program has recently detected fragments of the virus that causes COVID-19 at:

• Uralla, Gunnedah, Inverell and Hunter Karuah sewage treatment plants in Hunter New England LHD
• Coffs Harbour sewage treatment plants in Mid North Coast LHD
• Cowra sewage treatment plant in Western NSW LHD
• Young sewage treatment plant in Murrumbidgee LHD
• Narooma sewage treatment plant in Southern NSW LHD.

No recent cases have been identified in these areas, so everyone is urged to monitor for the onset of symptoms, and if they appear, to immediately be tested and isolate until a negative result is received.