NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said a man in his 80s in the south-west of Sydney died on Friday after contracting the virus during the latest outbreak, and extended her sympathies to the man's family.

Meanwhile, Premier Gladys Berejiklian held a crisis cabinet meeting prior to announcing tougher lockdown restrictions to budge a "stubborn number" of cases infectious in the community which, to 8pm Friday, numbered at least 29.

The Premier announced a pause on all construction and non-urgent maintenance on Greater Sydney from midnight Saturday until July 30, along with new restrictions preventing face-to-face sales for non-critical retail businesses, and a ban on car pooling.

A list of critical exempt from the increased restrictions, which was released shortly after the Premier's announcement, includes pharmacies, grocery outlets, petrol stations and post offices among others.

"Anything which is regarded as non critical retail will not will not be able to have face to face, you will either have to click and collect, you'll either have to get delivery or take away," the Premier said.

Restrictions for regional NSW, including the Hunter, will continue as they have since the current lockdown began, with no additional measures to be imposed, Ms Berejiklian said.

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"We've prevented the wide spread of the virus, we've prevented thousands and thousands of people being exposed to the virus and getting infected," Ms Berejiklian said. "But what we haven't managed to do is budge that stubborn number (of infectious cases) every day for the last few days where we need to quash this virus,

"It's not good enough for us to tread water, which is what we're doing now."

COVID IN AUSTRALIA

There were 81,970 tests conducted in the last 24 hours and are currently 1000 active local cases in the state, according to data released by NSW Health.

NSW Police issued 162 personal infringement notices during the reporting period, a number Deputy Commissioner Gary Worboys said was disappointing.

"What it means is that the millions of people right across this state, that are doing absolutely the right thing, are being let down by a small minority of people that continue to be irresponsible," Dept. Commissioner Worboys said.

"They put themselves at risk and their communities of risk. The Premier has made it very clear that the strengthening of the health orders will mean that people will have to change the way that they behave."

Ms Berejiklian said the lockdowns to date had prevented "thousands" of potenital infections, but that tougher restrictions were intended to bring the number of infectious cases in the community under control.

Under questioning over how cases continue to spread, Dr Chant attributed a number of transmissions as originating at workplaces, which she described as a "melting pot".

"We are seeing some seeding of workplaces," Dr Chant said, "And that includes workplaces that we could never close down, so we have to accept that, and then some workplaces that are potentially open to decisions of government to close.

"Once you get a workplace transmission, it's like a melting pot. Workplaces draw people from a vast geographical area.

"Masks provide some protection but no barrier is absolute. What we're trying to do is stop the opportunity for that transmission, because what happens is, that next person gets infected, they then take the disease home to their household, they then trigger another set of household transmissions, and we're chasing our tail in terms of the cases."

Meanwhile, stay at home orders continue to apply to residents who live, work or study in the the Blue Mountains, Central Coast, Wollongong and Shellharbour local government areas.

Restrictions continue in the regions for household visitors, capped at five including adults and children, along with capacity limits gyms and other venues.

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