Over the past four days New South Wales has consistently reported more than 6000 new cases of the virus per day, however Premier Dominic Perrottet said "that is exactly what was going to occur" as the state began to reopen and coronavirus restrictions eased.

"What is most important as we move through this next phase is our ICU numbers, hospitalisation numbers," he said.

"Every single day we are looking at the challenges that we face, we are monitoring the hospital system here in NSW - in every [local health district] across the state - and we will tailor our settings where we need to."

He said the state won't return to "a world of lockdown" and that the fully vaccinated rate of 93 per cent among NSW residents over 16 means that "society is moving on".

IN OTHER NEWS:

Wagga MP Joe McGirr echoed these remarks and said that New South Wales is going through a "transition phase" of the pandemic, following two years of lockdowns and then a vaccination rollout "in which we have actually been very successful in protecting our community".

"We are ready now to move to another phase in which really, we learn to live with COVID," he said.

When asked why indoor mask wearing and density limit rules were reintroduced if a rise in cases was expected, Mr Perrottet said "if that facts change, the response changes".

"...we made what I see as modest and appropriate changes over the summer break," he said, with the reintroduced restrictions in place until January 27.

"We think these are very appropriate settings for the circumstances we find ourselves in."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: