RESIDENT’S in Queanbeyan will remain in lockdown until August 28, after the NSW government extended the restrictions to align with greater Sydney.

It comes as Queanbeyan records its first two cases of covid in more than 12 months.

The lockdown for regional NSW was set to expire on Sunday night (August 22) but given a growing number of COVID-19 cases in the regions, the NSW deputy premier John Barilaro said they had no choice but to extend it.

“The numbers overnight are starting to show clearly there are concerns in regional NSW, there are two new cases in Queanbeyan and the escalating crisis in Canberra is causing the surrounding areas issues,” Mr Barilaro said.

“We must stay in front of the curve and in front of the spread and that’s why we need keep regional NSW in Lockdown.”

The state recorded 681 cases overnight.

Of the 681 cases, 25 were from Western NSW, five were from Hunter New England, one was from Central Coast LHD, one was from the mid north coast LHD and two were from southern NSW, while the other cases are yet to be assigned to a region.

The two Queanbeyan residents who tested positive to covid in the past 24 hours work in the ACT.

Contact tracing is underway and there are no public exposure sites to date.