There has been a surge in COVID-19 cases in northern New South Wales, despite numbers across the state trending down, as holiday makers and festival goers flock to the region.
The local health district recorded monthly highs for two days in a row with 631 cases detected yesterday and 719 today.
There has also been a near doubling of the number of people in hospital in the past week to a monthly high, although that figure has fluctuated throughout April.
"There has been a 50 per cent increase [in cases] in the last week on what we've been seeing on the previous fortnight [which] had been averaging 350-450 cases a day for the last two weeks," North Coast Public Health director Paul Douglas said.
The region, which is currently in recovery mode after two devastating flood events, hosted more than 100,000 people at the Bluesfest in Byron Bay over the weekend.
But authorities said the uptick was likely the result of broader travel to the area over the Easter break.
"We had more visitors, more travellers, more people vacating out here over the school holiday period," Mr Douglas said.
Some areas in the region have lagged behind with uptake of the COVID vaccine, but Mr Douglas was comfortable with the current rates.
"We know in some areas of northern NSW there is some vaccine hesitancy, but I think the numbers are high enough now that we do have broad protection," he said.
The health director said anyone who caught the virus while travelling in northern NSW could potentially take it back with them.
"Again, go get vaccinated and that will minimise any impacts," he said.
COVID rules relaxing
The increase comes as NSW prepares to relax rules for close contacts from Friday.
Mr Douglas said the move struck the right balance as the community learnt to "live with COVID".
"I don't think we'll ever get back to the settings we had two years ago because, from a public health perspective, we do need to protect the most vulnerable in the community," he said.
