As Lismore records another new 51 Covid cases, it was a year ago today (22/2/22) that the NSW government began its rollout of the Covid-19 vaccination program.

Now more than 95% of people over 16 have received a single dose of vaccine and 94.3% have received two doses.

Read more about today's date: It's Twosday 22/2/22. Is it too much?

Hailed by the NSW government as “among the best vaccination rates” in the world, that’s 16.6 million doses delivered through hospitals, the GP network and pharmacies.

It’s also cost the government $4 billion to fund the health system to manage the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic since March 2020.

Local cases

Across the Northern NSW Local Health District, 314 new Covid cases have been confirmed - from 30 positive PCR tests and 284 positive rapid antigen tests (RAT).

Confirmed tests by LGA (PCR and RAT included):

Tweed 96

Clarence Valley 67

Lismore 51

Ballina 32

Richmond Valley 32

Byron 27

Kyogle 9

There are 40 COVID-19 positive patients in hospital in Northern NSW, with 3 of these in ICU.

Sadly, today Northern NSW is reporting the death of one person aged in their 80s from COVID-19. They were from the Tweed area.

RAT results may be from within the previous seven days, and there may be some cases included in these numbers where people have reported positive RATs on multiple days and/or where people have also had a positive PCR test during the same reporting period.

Get tested

Northern NSW Local Health District is urging people to get tested for COVID-19 at the first sign of symptoms and isolate until a negative result is received.

Anyone who tests positive using a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) is required to register their result with Service NSW. Registering your RAT result enables NSW Health to provide advice on self-isolation and managing COVID-19 symptoms at home and connect high risk people to clinical care services.

Everyone who is eligible for a booster is encouraged to book without delay through the COVID-19 vaccine clinic finder.

Booster doses of COVID-19 vaccine are now available for people aged 16 and over who had their second dose at least three months ago. We urge people to get their booster dose as soon as they are eligible, to best protect themselves, their loved ones and the community from the ongoing transmission of COVID-19.

We also strongly recommend that people aged 12 years and over who are severely immunocompromised have a third primary dose of vaccine from two months after their second dose.

NSW Health vaccination clinics are now administering the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to children aged five to 11 years old. Parents and caregivers are encouraged to make a booking for vaccination at any NSW Health vaccination clinic, at a general practitioner, or a community pharmacy.

Case data by postcode is also available on the NSW Government website.

For the most up to date COVID-19 information visit nsw.gov.au.

NSW Statistics

There were 8,752 positive test results (cases) notified in the 24 hours to 4pm yesterday – including 6,036 positive rapid antigen tests (RATs) and 2,716 positive PCR tests. The 2,716 positive PCR results were returned from 36,122 PCR tests.

NSW Health reports the deaths of 14 people with COVID-19; 11 men and three women.

Four people were in aged in their 60s, one person was in their 70s, five people were in their 80s and four people were in their 90s. Older age is a significant risk factor for serious illness and death for COVID-19, particularly when combined with significant underlying health conditions.

Four people had received three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, seven people had received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine and three people were not vaccinated.

Two people were aged under 65 years, both had received three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine and had significant underlying health conditions.

This brings the total number of COVID-19 related deaths in NSW since the beginning of the pandemic to 1,855.