A DELIVERY driver's visit to a Lavington plumbing store could contribute to the Albury local government area returning to lockdown after midnight Thursday.
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The Reece shop was shut on Wednesday after management was told a COVID positive driver stopped there on Monday at 12.30pm.
About ten staff work at the Dallinger Road site and they have been directed to undertake COVID tests and isolate as they await results.
One is being treated in Victoria beyond the North East, while the other person is isolating in Albury.
The health service did not provide any exposure sites on Wednesday, with its executive director of medical services Len Bruce saying he could not say how the duo caught COVID or where they had been.
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Asked if it would mean the reintroduction of a lockdown for Albury, Dr Bruce said: "I'd leave that to the public health unit, I think what they'll do is they'll do the contact tracing for the patients and then see if they were infectious (widely)."
The health district stated on Wednesday night a list of exposure sites would be revealed on Thursday, with a joint media conference with Albury Wodonga Health to be held.
NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro said last week in the lead-up to regional areas being released from lockdown that they would return to stay-at-home rules for 14 days upon the detection of a COVID case.
That approach saw Yass Valley Council, due to a single case, return to lockdown at 12.01am Tuesday after a public directive just before 4.30pm Monday.
The response to Albury's outbreak was not as swift on Wednesday, with the NSW government's crisis group meeting into the night to assess the fate of councils across the state.
Speaking before he attended that meeting, Mr Barilaro would not say lockdown was inevitable.
"I'm not going to have a knee-jerk reaction and (say) we should just have a lockdown because a case has been named," he said.
"Is there community exposure, is there risk, if that risk is real and it does become an issue, yes we will be looking at locking down Albury."
Mr Barilaro said a lockdown would not extend to Greater Hume Shire.
"I understand the donut arrangement but the reality is you've also got to take into account the geographic footprint of our local government areas, they are quite vast," he said.
Mr Barilaro defended the re-opening of Albury after an ABC Goulburn Murray radio journalist told him pubs were "open all night (and) the streets really were heaving" at the weekend.
"I've sat on these regional hook-ups (with) many journos advocating that we've never had a case in Albury or in the Riverina," Mr Barilaro said.
"You can only base it on the data, there was no cases in Albury and therefore we opened up.
"No I don't think it's too early, you can't suppress what doesn't exist and there was no cases."
Member for Albury Justin Clancy said on Wednesday morning there was a "real likelihood" of a lockdown occurring and later warned people to be "prepared for any outcome" today.
He again urged people to undergo vaccination and testing.
If Albury enters lockdown it will cover the bulk of school holidays and AFL grand final weekend, which are both money-spinners for businesses.
