Health authorities have confirmed three new COVID-19 cases in Dubbo as the region and eight other local government areas in western NSW entered the first day of a week-long snap lockdown.

All three cases are linked to those reported yesterday and bring the total number of cases in the state's west to six.

NSW Deputy Chief Health Officer Marianne Gale urged communities to adhere to the stay-at-home orders.

"It's incredibly important to protect your household and community," she said.

"A specific call-out to our Aboriginal community — many affected communities [in western NSW] have a high proportion of Aboriginal people.

"Stay at home, come forward for a test if you have symptoms and get vaccinated with any available vaccines as soon as you can."

The NSW Department of Education confirmed a student from Orana Heights Public School had tested positive.

The school is closed for cleaning and contact tracing is being carried out.

Two of the new cases are linked to a 27-year-old Walgett man with COVID-19 who was in Dubbo and Bathurst during his infectious period.

Western NSW Local Health District chief executive said residents should brace themselves.

Vaccines westbound — but no jabs in Walgett

The federal government is reallocating 1,200 Pfizer doses to Walgett today, which will be taken from the national GP stockpile.

The ABC understands the NSW government will send another 3,000 doses to the town in coming days.

The Western NSW Local Health District paused its mobile community vaccination service after the NSW government announced its intention to reallocate doses of the Pfizer vaccine from across regional and rural NSW to students sitting the HSC in Sydney.

The ABC understands first-dose clinics were impacted and many first-dose appointments were cancelled over the confusion.

Vaccine clinics in Bathurst, Orange, and Dubbo, as well as the mobile vaccine service, facilitated second doses only.

On August 5 the federal government announced an additional 180,000 Pfizer doses to be sent to Sydney, allowing the borrowed regional doses to be returned.

It has not been confirmed whether doses of the Pfizer vaccine have left the western region.

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Premier Gladys Berejiklian denied vaccines had been directed away from western NSW.

"All those vaccines had already been returned," she said.

There are no appointments for vaccinations available in Walgett at the moment.

The closest available is in Moree, 180 kilometres east of the town — and in more than 21 days' time.

Aboriginal vaccination fears

Health authorities are yet to confirm the original source of the Walgett man's infection and there is concern the virus will spread among the Indigenous communities in West Dubbo and Walgett.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the federal government had been in charge of the Indigenous vaccination rollout.

He confirmed he did not have confidence in the health resources on the ground in western NSW if there was an outbreak in Walgett.

"I'm not, I make that very clear — I wrote to the federal government last night and I thank Minister [Greg] Hunt for responding," he said.

"I know because I received a text message last night that [Walgett Hospital] is very short staffed, like everywhere else in the health system at the moment.

"By far the majority of Aboriginal people in that north-western section of our state have not received the vaccine."

At the time of the 2016 census more than 40 per cent of Walgett's population identified as Indigenous.

Indigenous Affairs Shadow Minister Linda Burney said the situation would not be so dire if Indigenous communities were successfully prioritised in the vaccine rollout.

"It just stuns me that the government is saying that they're rushing vaccines out there," she said.

The Minister is a member of the Wiradjuri nation, the region's biggest Aboriginal group.

She said the vulnerability of the communities in the west was a major concern.