NSW recorded 1281 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 and five deaths on Monday.
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All five new coronavirus cases in the Hunter were infectious in the community.
The cases identified in the 24 hours to Sunday night included one each in Cardiff, Macquarie Hills, Toronto, Nelson Bay and Chisholm.
Eight Hunter COVID-19 cases are being treated in hospital and one is in intensive care.
Hunter public health controller Dr David Durrheim said 29 of the 41 cases identified in the past five days had been active in the community while infectious.
"They span from the south of Lake Macquarie all the way up through Newcastle, Maitland, Cessnock, upper Hunter Valley and the entire Port Stephens peninsula," he said.
"So the virus is all around us."
He said controlling the virus' spread in the Hunter by getting tested for minor symptoms would buy the region time to get people vaccinated.
Two-dose adult vaccinations levels were below 40 per cent in the Hunter.
"We really need to make sure we keep suppressing the virus so that we can actually get all of our community protected with two doses of vaccine as it becomes much more readily available over the next couple of weeks."
The new cases across the state included:
- 483 in South Western Sydney Local Health District (LHD)
- 348 in Western Sydney LHD, 137 are from Sydney LHD
- 118 in South Eastern Sydney LHD
- 67 in Nepean Blue Mountains LHD
- 44 in Western NSW LHD
- 22 in Northern Sydney LHD
- 21 in Illawarra Shoalhaven LHD
- eight in Central Coast LHD
- seven in correctional settings
- seven in Far West LHD
- five in Hunter New England LHD
- five in Southern NSW LHD
- nine cases yet to be assigned to an LHD.
A man in his 90s from south-east Sydney died at St George Hospital. He was a resident of St George Aged Care Facility in Bexley and acquired his infection there.
A woman in her 80s from northern Sydney died at Ryde Hospital.
A woman in her 50s from western Sydney died at Westmead Hospital.
A woman in her 80s from western Sydney died at Westmead Hospital.
A man in his 60s from Southern Highlands died at home.
NSW hospitals are treating 1071 COVID-19 patients in hospital, including 177 in intensive care and 67 on ventilators.
There have been 131 COVID-19 related deaths in NSW since 16 June 2021, and 187 in total since the start of the pandemic.
There have been 29,253 locally acquired cases reported since June 16, 2021.
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