Another person has died and NSW's daily COVID-19 case number has dropped back under 300 on Sunday, following a record day of 319 COVID-19 cases on Saturday.
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More than 260 positive cases emerged in the state in the 24 hours to 8pm on Saturday, and more than 95,000 tests were carried out across the state, premier Gladys Berejiklian said.
A woman aged in her 80s, who had been a resident at an aged care home in Summer Hill, died with the virus in Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, after another five deaths were sadly revealed on Saturday. It brings the total deaths from this outbreak, which first emerged in mid-June, to 28.
A total of 46 of the 262 new cases announced by Ms Berejiklian were infectious in the community.
In other news
Ms Berejeklian said the Canterbury-Bankstown area was still the epicentre of the NSW outbreak.
Ms Berejiklian continued her calls for every adult in the state to seek out a vaccination as NSW passes 4.4 million vaccines administered.
ATAGI recently updated its advice on AstraZeneca for areas facing COVID-19 outbreaks, now suggesting a wait of between four and eight weeks instead.
The recommended 12-week interval between doses of the Astrazeneca vaccine will remain in place in the Murrumbidgee region, as it is classified as a non-outbreak setting.
NSW Police has urged the state to play by the rules, and will ramp up high-visibility operations to support the community in ensuring compliance with the public health orders, the organisation said on Sunday morning.
It comes as Wagga leaders back calls for a ring of steel around Sydney, and the sobering statistic emerged that one person is fined every day in Wagga for breaching orders and coming from the Greater Sydney region.
"After this is all over yes, please, come and visit us but while you're locked down in Sydney please don't even think about coming out to regional NSW," Wagga's mayor Greg Conkey said.
Now is not the time for complacency, NSW Police's Deputy Commissioner Mick Willing said, after COVID fragments detected in sewage in regional areas including Dubbo, Armidale, Coffs Harbour and Mudgee were detected.
The Armidale and Guyra region entered a seven-day lockdown at 5pm on Saturday after two cases were detected there, two days after the Hunter Valley, including Newcastle, went into a snap lockdown on Thursday.
One of the Armidale cases was a close contact of a known case in the Newcastle area, where she had visited recently, and the other was a household contact.
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"Regional NSW is the lifeblood of the state, and we all just need to keep doing the right thing so we can keep everything moving," Deputy Commissioner Willing said.
"Further, the Delta variant poses a significant risk to our most vulnerable communities, and we cannot allow it to spread any further into the regions or our remote areas.
"It only takes one person doing the wrong thing to spread the virus - and it's encouraging for police to continue to have the community's support through the reporting of this type of selfish behaviour."
The NSW update followed news from Queensland, where Cairns goes into lockdown from 4pm today, with the south-east Queensland lockdown ending at the same time, but with some restrictions remaining in place.
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