Seriously ill COVID-19 patients have detailed the devastating toll of the virus, pleading for Sydney's residents to get vaccinated as hospitals struggle under the pressure of the escalating outbreak.
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NSW notched up another grim record with 919 locally acquired cases to 8pm on Tuesday.
Two more people have died, including a 30-year-old mother-of-three from western Sydney - one of the youngest people in the state to succumb to the virus.
Some 645 people are in hospital with the virus, including 113 in intensive care.
Speaking from their hospital beds, three COVID patients at Concord Hospital urged the community to avoid becoming a statistic by getting vaccinated urgently.
Exhausted and lying face-down in his bed, 50-year-old construction worker Fawaz told how he and his entire family contracted the virus despite their vigilance.
His daughter has now been hospitalised too.
"She's getting dizzy, her heart rate is too high and she is finding it hard to breathe," he said.
"I wish I knew beforehand... It's not a game, it's for real."
Pharmacy worker and single mother Ramona said the virus had hit her harder than childbirth and a major operation.
"I'm an essential worker. I could have contracted the virus from someone who didn't want to get the vaccination," she said.
The single mother - who had received one vaccine dose - cried as she described not having seen her children in weeks, urging the community to see vaccination as a privilege.
It comes as Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Wednesday admitted the high case load is stretching some Sydney hospitals.
"There's no doubt that parts of the hospital network are under severe pressure," she said.
"When... 80 per cent of cases are coming out of the same region, that will put pressure on the hospital."
Westmead Hospital in the virus hotspot of western Sydney declared a "yellow emergency" on Tuesday due to an overwhelming number of COVID-19 patients.
The hospital has reduced ambulance arrivals for COVID-19 patients for 24 hours and will transfer several critical patients to other Sydney metropolitan hospitals. An urgent critical care review is underway.
Westmead is managing 1500 COVID-19 patients in the community.
But Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the state's hospital system is working.
"The NSW Health system is probably the best in the world," he said.
"All the information given to me from the doctors, and nurses, and our public health staff is that the system is coping."
Authorities are urging people who experience breathlessness, chest pain or dizziness to call an ambulance, after a young mother with COVID-19 died at home on Monday.
"Please do not delay care because we do not want to see consequences from delayed care," Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said
Dr Chant said the woman, Ianeta Baker Isaako, had been offered accommodation at a residence for COVID-19 patients before she died at home in Emerton in western Sydney.
Her husband is also sick with the virus.
The other death was a man in his 80s from Sydney's north, who died at Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Hospital after being infected at the Greenwood Aged Care in Normanhurst.
This brings the number of COVID-related deaths in NSW to 76 since June 16.
The premier acknowledged that people would be alarmed to see the case numbers - up by 166 from the previous day - but urged them to instead look at vaccination rates.
"Nearly one third of our population is fully vaccinated," she said.
"If we keep these rates up we will hit further milestones."
About 60 per cent of NSW residents aged 16 or older have had at least one shot, with 32 per cent fully vaccinated.
Australian Associated Press
