Albury Wodonga Health's chief Michael Kalimnios has sought to ease heightened anxiety around COVID-19 by declaring there was no evidence of community transmission locally.
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At the end of a week when the NSW government shut its border to Victoria and Premier Gladys Berijiklian publicly discouraged Albury residents travelling to other parts of the state, the cross-border health service went on the front to allay growing community fears the dire situation in Melbourne was about to be replicated here.
After being coronavirus-free for around 100 days, three new cases from the same Lavington household were confirmed this week and fuelled fears of further outbreaks.
"We're still encouraging people to get tested, but we still only have the three confirmed cases in the area, who are all part of the one family, the source has been contact traced back to Melbourne and they've had very little community contact," Mr Kalimnios said.
A further 288 cases were recorded in Melbourne on Friday with the city going into a six-week lockdown.
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"It's important people understand we don't have any evidence of covid infection rates getting worse or out of control," Mr Kalimnios said.
"Apart from these three cases we have gone well over 100 days without any covid cases in Albury-Wodonga."
Mr Kalimnios said fears growing north of the border weren't warranted.
"It's indicating that people are about to flock over the border with covid, but there is no evidence of that," he said.
Also, NSW Health has removed confusion on interpretation of the health orders relating to the border closures this week.
"The government's intent was to ensure any Victorian or anyone entering NSW from Victoria after the commencement of the orders will be required to self isolate," a NSW Health spokesperson said.
."The government's policy was not to be retrospective."
Mr Kalimnios confirmed AWH staff members had been impacted by the initial wording of the health orders.
In one instance an AWH employee from Beechworth, who works in Albury, was classified as living outside the border closure "bubble".
"They weren't able to get a permit to come and work in Albury," Mr Kalimnios said.
"It's now been resolved because we've been able to identify that person as a critical care worker and they are able to come across the border with a revised permit.
"Also, if you had someone from NSW who worked in Albury, but had to go and deliver services outside of the border community they would have to self isolate when they came back into Albury.
"But with the revised permit issued last night that is no longer a requirement."
Meanwhile, Murrumbidgee Local Health District's mobile testing clinic will be operating from Albury Showgrounds from Saturday.
The clinic was established at Mirambeena Community Centre this week saw over 700 people tested.