Byron and Tweed to exit lockdown tonight

The New South Wales north coast regions of Byron and Tweed will exit lockdown at midnight tonight following no further detection of COVID-19 in the local government areas (LGAs).

However, the LGA of Kempsey, which went into lockdown at the same time as Byron and Tweed, is expected to remain under stay-at-home orders for another week due to ongoing concern about COVID-19 in the region.

The LGAs of Port Macquarie and Muswellbrook are also expected to go into lockdown today, but further announcements to confirm the orders will come later this afternoon.

“These decisions are not made lightly - there’s more work to do and the public health team will be doing that work this afternoon,” NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said.

“But I’m just putting the communities on notice that there may be a further announcement today in regard to all three of those areas or any one of those three areas, we just need to make some final decisions on that.”

Hazzard thanked the local communities of Byron and Tweed for their cooperation with the stay-at-home orders.

“Thankfully we’ve had no further cases of concern,” he said.

“The public health time has advised that they can come out of lockdown.”

The announcements come after NSW today reported 863 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 and seven more deaths.

There are currently 1,155 cases of COVID-19 in hospital, and 213 in the intensive care unit.

Updated at 11.24am AEST on 28 September 2021.

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