They were identified by WNSWLHD chief executive Scott McLachlan as close contacts of people diagnosed with COVID-19.

Mr McLachlan revealed the tally on Tuesday when identifying some of the ways it was trying to keep the virus from spreading within its hospitals.

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"We've activated a red level escalation to be in all of our hospitals," he said.

"That's requiring a lot of additional PPE (personal protective equipment) and screening protocols for our health services.

"We've got a lot of things in place in our hospitals to make sure our patients and our staff are protected as much as absolutely possible.

"We know that staff are going to households and coming to work so there's regular testing opportunities for staff.

"There's a range of screening solutions to make sure that anyone who's coming into our health services are safe to come into our health services and that includes contractors and other support services."

Mr McLachlan acknowledged the move to the red level impacted communities.

"It does mean a decreased number of visitors and I know that's difficult for a lot of patients and communities and families, not being able to visit any loved ones in hospitals," he said.

"For people in end-of-life palliative situations, or mums in labor and birthing services, there are still visitors available for those services."

Earlier, the WNSWLHD reported of Dubbo Hospital being "well prepared" for the current outbreak of the virus, and the availability of ventilators to support "any patients" in need of them.

"Dubbo Health Service is well prepared and can scale up ward and intensive care unit capacity if required, to ensure patients who have tested positive will be safely managed," a spokesman said.

"In most cases, people with COVID-19 can be cared for appropriately in their home while self-isolating to protect the community.

"Not all people with COVID-19 need hospital care.

"Should patients need to be hospitalised, the district's intensive care units have the ventilator capacity required to support any patients that might need this level of care."

Non-urgent elective surgery was halted at Dubbo Hospital on Monday to "ensure we keep staff, patients and members of the public safe and that there are hospital beds available should the need arise", the WNSLHD advised.

On Tuesday there were two people with the virus in Dubbo Hospital including a man airlifted from Bourke.

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