No new coronavirus cases have been detected in the Hunter Region in the past 24 hours.
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NSW Health said on Saturday that NSW had reported nine new cases, with three of the cases not yet linked to any known sources.
Two of the new cases are returned international travellers, and four were locally acquired close contacts of known cases.
The three with no known source are under investigation, and two of these are close contacts of each other.
One of the cases was a student of Tangara School for Girls in Cherrybrook, which has been closed for cleaning and contact tracing is continuing. The source of the student's infection is under investigation.
Hunter New England Health's public health team is continuing to search for potential further contacts of a family coronavirus cluster that closed St Pius X, Adamstown and St Francis Xavier's College, Hamilton this week.
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Three brothers in the family tested positive but not their parents.
A subsequent rush to screening centres across Newcastle on Friday has not yet produced any new confirmed cases.
NSW deputy chief health officer Dr Jeremy McAnulty urged all residents to play their part to restrict the spread of the disease.
"While most cases in the past week have been associated with local clusters and close contacts with known cases, nine have not been linked to known cases, indicating that COVID-19 is circulating in the community," Dr McAnulty said on Saturday.
"It's extremely important we all play our part in prevention all the time."
HNEH public health physician Dr David Durrheim said the emergence of last week's Newcastle cluster was a "major wake-up call for all Novocastrians"
"We saw in the first phase that standing back, making sure we didn't hug or shake hands and made sure when we touched a surface that had been touched by others we made sure we washed our hands.
"Those things served us really well, and we really need to go back to that. We need to avoid crowded areas, and, if we can't, then a face mask is an additional measure, but it doesn't replace all the other more important measures," Dr Durrheim told the Newcastle Herald on Friday.
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Matthew Kelly
Matthew Kelly has worked as a journalist for more than 25 years. He has been working as a general reporter at the Newcastle Herald since 2018. In recent years he has reported on subjects including environment, energy, water security, manufacturing and higher education. He has previously covered issues including the health and environmental impacts of uncovered coal wagons in the Hunter Valley, the pollution of legacy of former industrial sites and freedom of information issues.
Matthew Kelly has worked as a journalist for more than 25 years. He has been working as a general reporter at the Newcastle Herald since 2018. In recent years he has reported on subjects including environment, energy, water security, manufacturing and higher education. He has previously covered issues including the health and environmental impacts of uncovered coal wagons in the Hunter Valley, the pollution of legacy of former industrial sites and freedom of information issues.
