In an Australian first, heat maps pinpointing COVID-19 cases by postcode will now show how many people have recovered from the virus, the estimated number of active local cases and number of tests completed.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the de-identified NSW Health data would help inform the community about COVID-19 testing and recovery rates across the state.
"NSW has one of the highest COVID-19 testing rates in the world. We have tested more than 200,000 people and have capacity to test more than 110,000 in a fortnight," Ms Berejiklian said.
"This new way of showing NSW Health data will help communities understand the numbers of people being tested, and encourage more people with symptoms to come forward for testing when they see the impact COVID-19 is having on their local area.
"It also provides encouraging data showing how people are bouncing back from the virus."
Minister for Customer Service Victor Dominello said the heat maps build on the transparency of existing data and will help the community stay informed.
"Providing these heat maps to the public makes NSW a leader in the delivery of live information about COVID-19," Mr Dominello said.
"At this point in time, it shows the community is rising to the challenge and doing the right thing by our state."
This data reveals the positive effect of the NSW Government's communication and testing efforts focussed on hot-spot clusters. For instance, in Liverpool there was less than 1,000 tests a month ago but that has climbed to more than 2,600 at recent count.
In Orange, where confirmed cases reached 10, NSW Health has tested more than a thousand people which has helped slow any increase in cases.
The tool provides a colour representation of the total cumulative cases across postcodes. The darker shades indicate the most cases.
The heat map can be accessed at: https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/find-facts-about-covid-19 and for further COVID-19 information visit www.nsw.gov.au.
