THE head of Murrumbidgee Local Health District is "cautiously optimistic" there will be no post-Easter spike of coronavirus cases in the region.
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MLHD public health director Tracey Oakman confirmed testing rates dropped during the Easter break following confirmation there were no new instances of COVID-19 with the present number of cases sitting at 44.
"Testing did drop off a little bit over Easter," she said.
"I would like to be cautiously optimistic that it (more cases emerge from Easter) might not happen, but that certainly is a risk.
"We're encouraging people to make sure they get tested if they have respiratory symptoms, they have fever or if they have a dry cough and shortness of breath.
"You don't have to have been overseas or in touch with a known case.
"The less testing you do, the less positive cases you are going to find.
"What I would like to hope is there are less symptomatic people around and there are less cases.
"But until we test everyone who have any symptoms at all then we don't know."
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The MLHD also confirmed there have been 25 people who have recovered from COVID-19 including four of the previous cases in Albury, three of the seven in Federation and both in Greater Hume.
But just one of five cases in Berrigan Shire has recovered to date.
Ms Oakman said the community could not become complacent even though there were no fresh cases.
"It only takes a few cases to spread to lots of people," she said.
"It is really important people maintain their social distancing and isolation when they are asked to.
"Over the next few weeks hopefully we can say we have less cases and we might be able to change some of those isolation rules.
"The end game is really important for all health authorities, economists and politicians.
"I don't think anyone personally likes the isolation rules so we need to get people back to work and kids back to school.
"But we need to do it in a measured way and a way that doesn't increase the risk."
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