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After the area only recorded 35 cases on Wednesday,103 of Thursday’s cases were in the Hunter New England Local Health District,which stretches from Lake Macquarie inland up to the Queensland border,taking in Newcastle,Tamworth and Armidale.

Thirty-three of the cases were in the Moree Plains local government area,including 30 in Moree,which had previously only recorded three cases in the current wave. Another seven cases were recorded at Inverell.

Dr David Durrheim,director of health protection at Hunter New England Health,said the increase in cases was “really disturbing”.

Dr Durrheim said cases in Moree,Inverell and Tamworth had been linked to “super-spreader events” including a funeral and a wake with large numbers of Aboriginal people in attendance.

In Moree Plains only 76.4 per cent of the area’s 16 and over population is fully vaccinated,according to federal government figures released earlier this week,and rates are lower in the Aboriginal community. On Thursday,the statewide double-dose vaccination rate was 89.1 per cent.

The cases have already resulted in three new infections over the border in Queensland and a number of exposure sites.

“People in Inverell and in the Moree area – you have some of the lowest vaccination rates in the state. It’s time to turn that around,” Dr Durrheim said in a video message on social media,asking people in the area to limit their movements and work from home if possible.

Moree was last placed on alert for the virus back in June – before the state’s lockdown – when aMelbourne couple drove up the Newell Highway to Queensland before testing positive to COVID-19.

Concerns have been raised aboutlow vaccination coverage in some Aboriginal communities in regional NSW.

Data from NSW Health’s regular surveillance report showed between June 16 and October 23 only 3.8 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who had caught COVID-19 were fully vaccinated,compared to 6.8 per cent of cases in the general population.

Cases on Thursday were slightly up in some other areas. There were 53 new cases in South Western Sydney Local Health District (up from 36 on Wednesday) and 36 from the Murrumbidgee region in the state’s south (up from 15 on Wednesday).

There were four new COVID-19 deaths reported,including a 38-year-old woman from Sydney’s west.

The woman died at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital,NSW Health said in a statement. She was not vaccinated and had underlying health conditions.

The deaths of three men,aged in their 70s and 80s from south-west Sydney and Shellharbour,were also reported.

One was a man in his 80s who was a resident at the Greek Orthodox Community Home for the Aged in Earlwood,where he caught the virus. He had received both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine and had underlying health conditions.

COVID-19 hospitalisations have continued to decline in NSW. There were 302 COVID-19 patients in hospital on Thursday,with 64 people in intensive care,31 of whom require ventilation.

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