Regional NSW towns on high alert as case numbers grow

Regional NSW is on high alert as the Delta variant spreads throughout more communities.

One of the regional cities concerning health authorities is Dubbo, in the Central West, which has 25 active cases.

Deputy Chief Health Officer Dr Marianne Gale said many of these cases will be reported in tomorrow's numbers and are not part of the 390 recorded to 8pm yesterday.

READ MORE: NSW records 390 COVID-19 cases, two more dead

Dr Gale said it was an "evolving situation in that district", which went into a snap lockdown on Wednesday.

"We are seeing further cases come through," she said.

She said the rapid spread of the virus in Dubbo was concerning.

READ MORE: Bunnings, Dan Murphys among Dubbo exposure sites

Dubbo is suspending non-urgent elective surgery, while all emergency surgery and urgent elective surgery will continue unaffected, NSW Health said.

"This response is a necessary step to ensure we keep staff, patients and members of the public safe and ensure there is bed availability should the need arise," NSW Health said in a statement.

Those patients affected will be contacted by a doctor and their condition monitored.

If necessary, they will be re-prioritised for surgery.

Communities on a 'knife-edge'

Jane Halton, chair of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness, earlier told Today regional parts of the country are at risk unless transmissions are curbed.

"This is literally sitting on a knife-edge," she said.

"We are watching, for example, around Dubbo and some of our Aboriginal communities, the real risk that this virus is going to get in there and that will be terrible consequences."

READ MORE: Several LGAs in western NSW now in lockdown

She said the majority of people in virus-stricken NSW were following stay-at-home orders but unless more people curb their movements, the consequences would be terrible.

"We just heard the politicians warning us that we could have thousands of deaths and we know that. We have seen the Doherty (Institute) modelling," Dr Halton said.

"We know that if this runs in the community without people being vaccinated that is what will happen."

Calls for 'urgent assistance' for Walgett

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said he had called on the Federal Government to provide urgent assistance for the north-west NSW town of Walgett.

The local community is comprised of about 80 per cent Indigenous Australians, which the Federal Government has vaccine responsibility for.

"I pointed out to (Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt) on behalf of the state government that we would need them to step in and do work that they said they would be doing much earlier and that is to try and vaccinate as many people as possible, and provide support," he said.

"They have stepped up, Minister Hunt responded quite quickly within an hour or two."

Mr Hazzard said the ADF would be working with the local health authorities and the government would be delivering about 8000 emergency vaccines to the region.

However, Mr Hazzard said due to the limited health resources in the region, the message to the community was to stay home.

"Some households are quite large households at the moment, which presents issues when one person could be going out and there could be 10 or 12 people in that household, and that's 10 or 12 more positive cases," he said.

New restrictions were introduced for the local government area of Walgett on Wednesday, along with the LGAs of Bogan, Bourke, Brewarrina, Coonamble, Gilgandra, Narromine and Warren until the beginning of August 19.