There are currently more than 7000 active cases of COVID-19 in the Wollongong, putting the local government area in the top ten areas with the most cases across NSW.
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With 7280 active cases as of March 27, Wollongong ranks ninth based on data showing the number of active cases reported from PCR and RAT tests.
This puts the city well behind front runners Blacktown (13,747 cases) and Central Coast (11487 cases) but far above its neighbours, like Shellharbour, Wollondilly and even the densely populated area of Campbelltown.
Wollongong is one of 21 LGAs which is coloured in black on NSW Health's current heat map of active cases, indicating there are more than 5000 active cases in those areas.
NSW Health reports cases as active for 14 days from symptom onset, while people who have been hospitalised are considered active until they discharged.
The heat maps also show post code data, with suburbs with over 1000 active cases coloured darkest.
Four Illawarra post codes are in this category, including the suburbs of Wollongong, Albion Park, Dapto and Shellharbour.
On Monday, there were 917 new cases reported in the Illawarra Shoalhaven health district, including 378 positive PCR tests and 539 positive rapid antigen tests (RATs).
Of these, 488 cases were from Wollongong Local Government Area (LGA), 211 cases were from Shellharbour, 173 cases were from Shoalhaven and 45 were from Kiama LGA.
NSW recorded 16,199 new COVID-19 cases and three deaths in the 24 hours to 4pm Sunday.
There were 1270 COVID-19 patients in hospital - up from 1171 the day before - with 55 in ICU (up from 47).
Of the new cases, 9570 came from positive rapid antigen tests while 6629 came from PCR testing.
There were three deaths reported across the state, two men and one woman who were residents of Sydney's north west, Western Sydney and Central West NSW.
One of these people was in their 50s, and had received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine and had a significant underlying health condition, NSW Health said. Two were aged in their 80s, with one having received three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine and the other receiving two doses.
Young people aged 10-19 continue to be the age group most affected by the recent wave of cases, with more than 32,000 in this group infected in the past week.
In the same time period, 20,342 children aged between 0 and 9 caught COVID-19.
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Kate McIlwain
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
