NSW Deputy Premier comfortable with decision to delay Albury lockdown call

John Barilaro revealed consideration was given to locking down the Border city on Wednesday after two Albury residents tested positive to COVID-19, but the NSW government wanted to investigate the extent of the exposures before it made the decision.

Albury will enter a seven-day lockdown from 6pm on Thursday.

It was confirmed by Murrumbidgee Local Health District on Wednesday morning that one of the positive cases had travelled from Sydney via train on Sunday, September 12, while the other was an essential worker who tested positive in Mildura before being transferred to Albury Hospital.

The middle-aged man is in intensive care and was due to be transported to Melbourne on Thursday afternoon.

"There are exposures, but in one particular case it's not as severe as the other, so we're comfortable to have delayed that decision," Mr Barilaro said.

"We believe 6pm seems appropriate because it sends a clear message to everybody and for businesses to close at the end of a usual business day.

"The seven days (in lockdown) is because it is only two cases, one not as severe as the other in relation to exposure, so we should have the ability to have flexibility to give that community some hope that it might be a very short, sharp lockdown."

IN OTHER NEWS:

It's the second positive case on the XPT service in the space of a week after a train from Sydney was halted on the Mid North Coast at Kempsey last Friday.

Mr Barilaro said he will make contact with NSW Minister for Transport Andrew Constance to discuss if any further measures need to be put in place to reduce the risk of COVID being spread via train passengers.

"We've got a number of arrangements for people who leave Sydney that they have to either have a permit or have been tested seven days prior," he said.

"I don't know whether it was one of those unlucky situations where they didn't have COVID until later on.

"We still need a rail system, we still need to move around the regions and function as a society.`

"We've had a couple of near misses or issues with rail passengers and I will be raising that with the transport minister to see if there's anything else we can do to strengthen what happens with movement."

We have removed our paywall from our stories which contain need-to-know information about coronavirus. If you would like to support our journalists you can subscribe here.