The stay at home orders which have kept the Narrabri Shire in lockdown for more than four weeks could be lifted as soon as this weekend, with a decision expected to be announced today.
While several local government areas in close proximity to the shire including Gunnedah, Tamworth and Armidale had their lockdowns lifted last Saturday, Narrabri missed out after recording its first COVID-19 case on Wednesday, September 8.
Despite advice that LGAs would not have their lockdowns lifted until 14 days after their most recent case, Mayor Ron Campbell announced yesterday that he had put forward a case for Narrabri Shire’s lockdown to be lifted early.
“I have written to the Deputy Premier putting forward the case; provided the facts, the statistics and the proof of what we as a community have been proactively doing, to be released from lockdown,” mayor Campbell advised.
“Our letter outlined the significant increase in the community coming forward for COVID testing since last Thursday; increased vaccination statistics across the Shire through coordinated mass vaccination clinics and the wonderful work our local health professionals have been doing in that space; the fact we currently have 0 cases in the Shire and prior to this, had never had a case in the Shire and the tremendous rapid response our local health and emergency services personnel undertook in containing and mitigating all risks to the community that were posed by the one case.”
Member for Barwon Roy Butler also announced yesterday that he had written to the Deputy Premier with a request to review the status of the Narrabri Shire lockdown as well as the Bogan Shire, the Gilgandra Shire and parts of Central Darling Shire.
NSW Nationals Upper House MP Sam Farraway confirmed last night that the Narrabri Shire was one of several LGAs under review to have their lockdowns lifted.
“I’ve just got off the phone with Deputy Premier John Barilaro. We have been working hard over the past two days on reviewing the current LGAs in lockdown across the Central West and Western NSW,” Mr Farraway advised.
“I can advise that the following LGAs are currently under review to have their lockdown lifted with a final decision to be made tomorrow (Thursday, September 16): Blayney Shire, Bogan Shire, Cabonne, Parkes Shire, Forbes Shire and Narrabri Shire.
“As a former small business owner, I appreciate how tough the lockdown is on our communities. Where possible, we need to get business and the economy going again.”
