Medical clinic added to alert list

Anyone who attended the Wentworthville Medical and Dental Clinic on January 15 between 11.30am and 1.15pm and was present in the dental, physio and imaging waiting room is now considered a close contact of a confirmed COVID-19 case.

Those who attended the waiting area of the Station St premises at that time are required to immediately get tested and self-isolate for 14 days regardless of the result.

Anyone else who visited other areas of the clinic at that time should also monitor for symptoms and immediately isolate and get tested if they appear.

Health authorities are also investigating how a western Sydney man contracted COVID-19.

NSW Health’s Dr Chatu Yapa said the infection was believed to be connected to the Berala BWS cluster but investigations were still underway.

The man’s infection was the only locally acquired case reported on Saturday as well as 11 others found in returned Australians in hotel quarantine.

The new cases bring the state’s total number of confirmed cases to 4868, with 100 considered active and one person being treated in intensive care.

Dr Yapa said it was “very likely” COVID-19 continued to circulate throughout the community among people with mild to no symptoms.

“It is vital that we pick up every case of COVID-19 if we are to prevent further community transmission, and the best way we have of doing this is maintaining high testing numbers,” she said.

“Anyone who is experiencing any cold or flu-like symptoms, no matter how mild, is urged to isolate immediately, get tested and continue to isolate until a negative result is received.

“This is particularly important in areas where there have been recent cases including western Sydney, southwest Sydney, the northern beaches and Wollongong.”

There are more than 350 COVID-19 testing locations across the state.

More than 4.46 million tests have been conducted in total, with 14,547 taken on Friday.