Council response to COVID 19 lockdown

With the community across NSW having achieved an average rate of more than 80% of people fully vaccinated, the practices to manage COVID have changed dramatically.

Restrictions are being removed in a phased fashion. Contact tracing and advice about affected premises are being wound right down.

COVID is still in the community but those vaccinated should be less affected. There are continuing dangers though for the unvaccinated, so planning is going into readying the public health system for the cases that develop within this group.

There is still the need to increase vaccinations for 12-16 year olds. Other initiatives are being developed to encourage or support the unvaccinated to step forward. The policy around third does is also being developed.

It is likely that the community do not have the need for the information that this report has provided on a weekly basis during the peak of the COVID era within Lithgow. On this basis, this particular report will not be updated further.

Congratulations Lithgow, on your adherence to the good public health advice, and for your participation in vaccination.

Lithgow Council is very proud of the role that is has played in ensuring that there were Lithgow-specific covid-safe activities. These greatly helped to reduce the extent to which the community was touched by COVID in a personal health sense.

For the latest COVID cases in the LGA visit:

https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/covid-19/Pages/stats-local.aspx

NSW provide updated venues of concern on a daily basis at the following link:

https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/covid-19/Pages/case-locations-and-alerts.aspx#table

• Anyone who is deemed a close contact must get tested and isolate for 14 days since they attended the venue of concern, regardless of test result.
• Anyone who is deemed a casual contact should immediately isolate, get tested and stay in isolation until a negative result is received.

For information regarding testing numbers in the LGA visit:

https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/find-the-facts-about-covid-19#map-of-nsw-covid-19-case-locations-cases-and-tests

Links are provided to a number of sites which include the statistics for vaccination rates (first and second dose) across the Lithgow LGA. Another source of information is:

https://www.smh.com.au/interactive/2021/coronavirus/vaccine-tracker/

https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/find-the-facts-about-covid-19#map-of-nsw-vaccinations-by-home-postcode

Unfortunately, however, there are discrepancies between some of these sets of data.

There are 7 GP practices providing vaccine. All provide AZ and 5 of them provide Pfizer. As more Pfizer becomes available around mid-Sept the other two will provide this also.

Some local pharmacies also provides AZ.  Check with your pharmacist to see if they are providing vaccinations.

Heath Direct Vaccine Eligibility Checker is a survey tool to determine whether you are eligible for a vaccination. It will then provide details of local vaccination clinics including NSW Health clinics, GP surgeries, medical centres and pharmacies providing vaccinations and appointments they have available.