Cases Escalate As Health District Delivers Isolation Advice

As Covid ravages both sides of the Murray, some welcomed relief has been issued from health authorities for asymptomatic people in isolation awaiting PCR test results. 

Chief executive of the Murrumbidgee Local Health District Jill Ludford announced on Monday that people who produced a PCR test but have not received their results after seven days "can de-isolate if they don't have symptoms".

"Please do not wait until you get that PCR result, you can go back out into the community if you're asymptomatic,"

The new advice comes as residents in Wagga reported waiting for up to 13 days before receiving their PCR results.

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Meantime, people are still urged to use a rapid antigen test (RAT) before entering the community as a safeguard against spreading the highly transmissible disease.

It follows as New South Wales recorded 25,870 new cases on Tuesday from PCR tests and sadly 11 Covid-related deaths. 

While south of the border, Victoria reported 37,944 new infections and 13 Covid fatalities.

Hospitalisations across both sates are also escalating, with 2186 people admitted with Covid in NSW, with 170 of those are in ICU, while Victoria has reported 861 people are in hospital with Covid, with 117 in ICU, and 27 on ventilators.

The rapid surge in cases is stretching emergency departments and health services in both states.

Furthermore, NSW will move to a duel reporting system, including RATs from Wednesday, with people told to log their results through the Service NSW app. 

Ms Ludford also reiterated that contact tracing is still occurring locally but "with the numbers that we're seeing, we're not contact tracing like we used to"

Instead, those in healthcare and aged care facilities, are being prioritised for contact tracing, as well as vulnerable groups.

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