As well as 55 new cases, there were two deaths involving two men (one man who was unvaccinated and a second man who had had a single dose of vaccine) and the region had seen "an abundance of cases" in people under the age of 50 and particularly people under the age of 40, Dr Durrheim said

"We've also seen cases in young children and in teens," Dr Durrheim said. "We have been seeing how the effect of COVID-19 is spreading in family groups and we have seen this in the past week or so with young families in particular being impacted."

Young parents in their 20s and 30s have contracted COVID either through social interactions or at their work places and spread it to their young children, he said.

The 'dynamic nature' of the virus was clearly visible too in the Hunter Valley he said, referring to the Muswellbrook Shire's return to stay-at-home orders since a case, as yet unlinked, was "rather active" in the Muswellbrook community while infectious, as well as in Scone.

"We've also had cases up in Aberdeen, linked to western, and cases in Singleton with exposure sites particularly at the local council. This is a time when we cannot allow the virus to get it's own momentum in the Hunter Valley."

Muswellbrook came out of lockdown along with 12 other local government areas just under two weeks ago on September 16, including Dungog, Singleton and the Upper Hunter. But stay-at-home orders were re-introduced to that local government area, along with Port Macquarie, from 6pm on Tuesday, for seven days.

Dr Durrheim said earlier this week that clusters were emerging in workplaces, as well as among social and family groups.

"This is very similar to what we saw in western and southwestern Sydney. Industrial sites and fast food sites are really important in the Hunter New England region, and we really plead with people - do not go to work if you've got any symptoms or if you are a close contact of someone with COVID."

He said symptoms now "probably does mean it's COVID" given the flu was passing.

"Please don't take it and spread it around, go and get tested immediately," Dr Durrheim said.

Earlier on Wednesday NSW Premier Galdys Berejiklian said that there was a chance that schools may re-open ahead of the current schedule which sees schools going back to face-to-face teaching as of October 25, with that date being reviewed on a daily basis.

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