Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced the sobering tally of new cases and two deaths during the Wednesday COVID update.

"(To 8pm Tuesday there was) 919 cases of community transmission and in addition to the very sad passing of a 30-year-old woman which was reported yesterday, there was an additional death of a man in his 80s in Hornsby Hospital," she said.

The coroner will investigate the death of the woman, who passed away at home in Sydney's west.

The source of infection for 758 of the new cases are still under investigation, with at least 37 being infectious in the community.

In other news

More than 125,000 people were vaccinated in NSW on Tuesday, bringing almost a third of the state to fully-vaccinated status, Ms Berejiklian said.

Almost 150,000 tests were carried out across the state, chief health officer Kerry Chant confirmed.

Currently there are 654 COVID-19 cases admitted to NSW hospitals, with 40 of the 113 in intensive care requiring ventilation.

Nearly 100 people being treated in ICU aren't vaccinated, the state's chief health officer said.

"I think this highlights the fact that vaccination is the key," Dr Chant said.

"We need to increase those vaccine coverage levels and can I just urge everyone to take up the opportunity for vaccination as soon as possible."

There are no confirmed cases in the Murrumbidgee Local Health District [MLHD], with more than a third of cases announced on Wednesday being detected in the Western Sydney local health district [LHD].

Regionally, 49 new cases have emerged in the Western LHD - mostly in Dubbo - and eight in the Illawarra-Shoalhaven, seven in the Far West, four in the Hunter New England LHD, one in the Central Coast LHD. Twelve cases are yet to be assigned to a health district.

Testing is also urgent in on the coast at Bateau Bay, Toukley and Merimbula after sewage detection despite an absence of known cases in those areas.

The surge in cases comes the day after another brush with the virus in the Riverina, as local health authorities listed four venues, some with multiple visits, as casual contact exposure sites.

Two service stations, a bakery and a newsagent in Temora and Beckom have been impacted following visits from a potentially infectious and since confirmed positive COVID-19 case last week.

The essential worker, who lives outside the region, was asymptomatic, the MLHD said, and is believed to have been diagnosed through routine testing.

"MLHD is also urging anyone in Temora or Beckom, or who has been in Temora or Beckom recently, to get tested if they have even the slightest of symptoms and isolate until they receive a negative result," the health district advised.

The detection could put the region's emergence from lockdown at risk, deputy premier John Barilaro said on Tuesday.

"If we were going to have a local government approach, as I said previously an LGA [by] LGA approach, it does bother me and worries me because with exposure sites you need time," he said.

"I've spoken here before about a 14-day incubation period [and] to have an exposure today - what is it, Tuesday - doesn't give us a lot of time to understand exactly what's occurred there."

Temora mayor Rick Firman said it was critical for the community to remain "alert but not alarmed", and that council would work with MLHD however they are needed.

The interstate situation

What will come next in terms of an outline for lockdowns lifting is expected to be revealed on Thursday.

Meanwhile, there are growing calls across the region for the COVID vaccine rollout to be expanded and include all children over the age of 12.

From Wednesday, everyone over 12 on the National Disability Insurance Scheme will become eligible for the Pfizer jab.

Finley GP Dr Alam Yoosuff, who lives in the VIC-NSW border bubble, believes that children should be included in the vaccine rollout in the future.

"There's no second thought about it," he added.

Pfizer is currently only offered to children aged 12 to 15 who have an underlying health condition, or who identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander.

More on the pandemic

Wagga residents awaiting their citizenship ceremonies have been dealt another blow with the city forced to postpone ceremonies for two months in a row and potentially longer due to the ongoing outbreak.

Wagga City Council is now looking into offering virtual ceremonies off the back of calls for an alternative to the ongoing postponement of ceremonies to avoid the list of those waiting for their big day growing ever longer.

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