The Hunter New England local health district reported 1811 cases overnight, slightly below the near-2000 cases reported on Friday.
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The latest cases, reported in the 24 hours to 8pm on Friday evening, takes the health districts most recent outbreak to 6060 active cases, 45 of whom are undergoing hospital treatment with three in intensive care.
Newcastle and Lake Macquarie local government areas have accounted for the majority of new cases, reporting a combined 921 overnight - almost three times that of Maitland, where 241 cases were reported.
There were 496 cases in Newcastle, 425 in Lake Macquarie, 174 at Port Stephens, 103 at Cessnock, and 45 new cases at Singleton.
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Meanwhile, in the New England and North West parts of the health district, Tamworth reported 53 new cases, with 37 at Narrabri, 31 at Moree, 20 at Armidale and two cases at Inverell.
Muswellbrook reported just nine new cases, while the Upper Hunter local government area reported eight, with four at Dungog.
The latest report comes as the NSW COVID-19 outbreak continues to grow, with a record 22,577 new cases reported Saturday morning. Four people have died in the state overnight and more than 119,000 tests were conducted.
NSW closed the year recording more infections in one week than it did throughout Delta-induced lockdowns.
That outbreak began with an infected limousine driver on June 16, leading to lockdowns that eventually covered the whole state and ended as restrictions began easing for fully vaccinated residents on October 11.
During that period the state recorded 63,338 cases.
In the final week of 2021, with the more transmissible Omicron variant rampant, pathology labs pushed to their limit and most restrictions ended, the state recorded 75,258 cases, including 21,151 on December 31, when it also recorded six deaths.
With vaccination rates high, Premier Dominic Perrottet has focused attention on the number of people in hospital and intensive care units, rather than the number of daily cases.
On the final day of 2021 there were 832 people with the virus in hospital, 69 of them in intensive care. That tally increased to 901 hospitalisations in the latest update released Saturday morning, with 79 people requiring intensive care.
Despite comprising about six per cent of the population, unvaccinated people make up the majority of those in intensive care, Health Minister Brad Hazzard said.
with reporting from AAP
Simon McCarthy
Simon McCarthy is a journalist working at the Newcastle Herald in NSW. He writes news and features, and produces video and multimedia, for the Herald and Herald Weekender magazine. He contributes regularly to the Newcastle Herald’s daily Topics column, and is the co-creator and producer of the Toohey’s News podcast. McCarthy has worked as a journalist in regional NSW since 2013. He joined the newsroom of the Newcastle Herald in 2017 from the Northern Daily Leader in Tamworth where he worked from 2015 to 2016.
Simon McCarthy is a journalist working at the Newcastle Herald in NSW. He writes news and features, and produces video and multimedia, for the Herald and Herald Weekender magazine. He contributes regularly to the Newcastle Herald’s daily Topics column, and is the co-creator and producer of the Toohey’s News podcast. McCarthy has worked as a journalist in regional NSW since 2013. He joined the newsroom of the Newcastle Herald in 2017 from the Northern Daily Leader in Tamworth where he worked from 2015 to 2016.
