NSW reports worst COVID day with 356 new cases and 3 deaths

New South Wales has recorded its highest daily increase in COVID-19 cases to date after a record 356 new cases were identified in the 24 hours to 8:00pm yesterday, and the number of deaths linked to an outbreak at a Sydney hospital rose to Three.

A staggering 356 cases were recorded today, smashing Saturday’s previous record of 319 cases.

Tragically, the death toll has also risen by three, to 32, and there are significant concerns after it was revealed around one third of today’s cases were in the community while infectious. 

Of those cases, up to 254 were infectious in the community for at least part of their infectious period, including the 57 who were in the community for all of their infectious period, 40 who were in the community for part of their infectious period, and 157 which are still being investigated.

The higher the number of people out and about while infectious, the higher the spread could be, so it's just another blow for the long-suffering people of NSW who face an anxious wait in the days ahead.

Infection rates continue to escalate in the Canterbury-Bankstown area in Sydney's west.

"We have seen stabilisation and substantial decline in areas like Fairfield, so communities that are responding to health orders and to what we are asking them to do are seeing a decline in their LGAs," NSW Premire Ms Gladys Berejiklian said.

Ms Berejiklian said the vaccine was the key to slowing the spread of the virus and easing lockdown and once again denied the need for a ring of steel or curfew to be implemented in Sydney.

"What we also have to accept is the basic fact that Delta is very different to other strains we have had," she said.

"Policy positions that may have worked in the past aren't going to have effect with Delta.

"Accept this is a different variant and we need to approach it differently."

NSW Health says there are now 357 Covid cases in hospital as the outbreak spreads across the state.

Of those, 60 are in ICU, and 28 are on ventilators.

There have been 5805 locally acquired cases reported since 16 June 2021, when the first case in this recent outbreak was reported.