No "major exposures" have occurred in Albury, Murrumbidgee Local Health District Jill Ludford says.
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Ms Ludford made the comment when asked by Australian Community Media if MLHD had provided advice to the NSW government Albury should go into lockdown.
"Now we're in part of the road map and recovery out of COVID, the message that we have today for people, particularly in the Albury and Greater Hume LGAs, is about people doing the right thing and restricting their movements," she said.
"Obviously, the government will continue to keep a very close eye on what's happening, but we haven't had any major exposures in the Albury LGA, and I'm sure the citizens there will heed to the advice and keep their community safe."
On the number of unlinked cases in Albury, Ms Ludford said about half of the cases were linked as close contacts.
"As we get more community transmission, we get a greater number (of unlinked cases) and we're going through that interview process at the moment ... to see where we can link the cases," she said.
"It's early days, and it does take us a while."
Ms Ludford said Murrumbidgee would not be providing a breakdown of the number of cases linked to each exposure site.
On the vaccination coverage in Albury, still sitting around 60 per cent, she said it "does leave us with a risk".
"I think we've seen across the state when people get an outbreak in their region, sometimes that's the wake-up call," Ms Ludford said.
"Because we lived for so long in relative low numbers, people haven't felt that same degree of urgency to get their vaccine.
"I think we're able to cope with the outbreak that we have in Albury at the moment - we've got good management plans, we've got good testing capability, there's low rates of hospitalisation, and the majority of people who have COVID are being cared for in the hospital in the home."
Ms Ludford was asked about reports of Harris Farm Markets being an exposure site.
"It depends what people did when they were actually in the venue," she said.
"If they dropped in ... and walked out in a very short timeframe, under 15 minutes, that won't go and be listed as a venue.
"It all depends on the information that our contact traces glean from the interviews."
Earlier:
Nine new cases have been recorded in the Albury local government area in the 24 hours to 8pm Sunday.
Three of the Albury cases have been linked to known cases and six remain under investigation.
Six new cases have been recorded in Greater Hume, two are linked to known cases and four are under investigation.
Two cases have been recorded in Murray River, linked to known cases, and one case has been recorded in Edward River, also linked to known cases.
In total, Murrumbidgee Local Health District recorded 18 new cases of COVID in the 24 hours to 8pm on Sunday.
There has been a total of 105 cases and one death recorded in the MLHD since the start of the current outbreak. These include 51 in Albury LGA, 25 in Hilltops LGA, 11 in Edward River LGA, eight in the Greater Hume LGA, four in Murray River LGA, two in Wagga Wagga LGA, two in the Berrigan LGA, one in Griffith LGA, and one in Federation LGA.
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The service will have to turn away anyone seeking a test as the wait times are already longer than the testing clinics' operating hours.
Huge lines have also been reported at clinics at Albury Showgrounds, Lavington Hall and the Albury Entertainment Centre.
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