The last case in the Hunter New England was recorded on Thursday, August 6.

That was a teenage boy who was the third member of a Newcastle household to test positive for the virus.

No further cases have emerged from that cluster, the source of which is still baffling health authorities.

Between last Friday and Thursday, there were 18,622 tests completed in the HNE local health district, and 5408 in the Newcastle local government area alone.

In the three weeks prior to Monday, a period when there was a handful of positive cases, more than 65,000 tests were conducted in the region.

Over the past month, the test rate in the Newcastle LGA has been one of the highest in the state compared to other council areas, with 122 tests for every 1000 people living in the city.

Only nine new cases were reported in NSW on Friday, all of which were in the Greater Sydney area.

Six of the cases were locally acquired and only one case had no known source. Three were people who had returned from overseas.

There were 29,696 tests carried out in the reporting period - the 24 hours to 8pm on Thursday - and in an encouraging sign, it was the second consecutive day the state recorded single-digit community transmissions.

In Victoria, there were 372 new cases on Friday, up from the 278 new cases a day earlier. The state also reported 14 deaths, including a man in his 20s, on Friday.

Victorian Chief Health officer Brett Sutton said he expected the state's death rate to start "levelling off" as the case numbers stabilise.

The NSW government is continuing its push for the increased use of face masks with Transport Minister Andrew Constance suggesting they could become mandatory should case numbers balloon in Sydney.

Only 30 per cent of public transport users are wearing masks, Mr Constance said, a figure derived from the monitoring of CCTV footage at five of Sydney's busiest train stations: Central, Campbelltown, Hornsby, Hurstville and Penrith.

"We need everyone to put them on so we don't have a Melbourne-style lockdown," Mr Constance said. "My preference is not to fine people, but if we've got to move to that mandatory requirement, that's what we'll potentially need to go to."