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Second day without locally acquired coronavirus cases in NSW

NSW residents have been urged to remain vigilant about the virus, despite a second day without locally acquired cases.

NSW residents have been urged to remain vigilant about the virus, despite a second day without locally acquired cases. Photo: Getty

Health authorities in NSW have confirmed six new coronavirus infections in the 24 hours to 8pm Tuesday.

All the cases are returned travellers in hotel quarantine.

NSW recorded no locally acquired cases for the second day in a row.

The last time NSW had consecutive days without local transmission of the virus was July 3, 4, and 5.

A total of 16,729 coronavirus swabs were taken on Tuesday, more than double Monday’s total of 7616 tests.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said it was a “good result” for the state but urged vigilance.

“Obviously we’d like to see that testing rate continue to be high, and if possible, higher,” she said.

Ms Berejiklian also flagged NSW was entering into a higher risk period with school holidays approaching.

“Our population will be more mobile than we have been since about February this year,” she said.

Ms Berejiklian also flagged next week would see the international cap on travellers entering NSW increase to 3000 people a week.

She said this provided extra strain on agencies, including NSW Police and security, but maintained NSW was up to the task.

NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant said health authorities had progressed in their search for the passengers of nine taxi trips taken while the driver was infectious with COVID-19.

“In terms of the nine trips, we have used a variety of sources to get access to that information,” Dr Chant said.

“The COVIDsafe app did not demonstrate usefulness in this setting.”

She said health authorities had been working with the taxi industry to improve record-keeping.

It’s been more than two weeks since health authorities were stumped by the source of an infection.

The last “mystery case” was confirmed on September 8.

Ms Berejiklian said she was prepared for the streaks to come to an end as per the “reality of living in a pandemic”.

“In a pandemic we are going to have set backs, we are going to have days where we have cases, we are going to have outbreaks,” she said.

“To be fair, I think NSW has been tested more than any other state because we haven’t had closed borders, we’ve had outbreaks, we’ve had seeding in Victoria and we’ve managed to get where we are.”

-more to come

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