So far this year, the region has recorded almost 232,000 positive cases of COVID-19 in total.

NSW Health's latest respiratory surveillance data shows there were 66 people admitted to Hunter New England hospitals - and four of those were in intensive care - in the week ending May 14. There were eight COVID-related deaths.

In NSW, there were 570 people with COVID-19 who were admitted to hospital, and 58 required intensive care. There were 90 COVID-19 deaths across the state.

It comes following a steep rise in influenza cases, both locally and across the state, suggesting winter flu season has arrived early.

There were 345 cases of the flu recorded in Hunter New England in the week to May 14.

To date, there have been 762 notifications of influenza in the region, with the majority of flu cases recorded within the past two weeks.

Across the state, there were 3,601 cases of influenza detected, taking the year's tally to 8,972.

NSW Health says hospital and laboratory surveillance continued to show a "sharp increase" in flu activity in the community - which had arrived earlier in the year than in previous winter flu seasons. Emergency department presentations for flu-like illness requiring an admission increased to 129 compared to 60 admissions in the previous week.

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