In the 24 hours of 8pm on January 1, Murrumbidgee Local Health District recorded 201 positive results, up from 154 cases in the previous 24 hours.

In the same time period, NSW as a whole recorded 18,278 cases, down from 22,577 in the previous 24 hours.

The MLHD has now seen 981 people test positive for COVID-19 over the past four weeks, including 325 people in Wagga local government area, 175 in Albury, 136 in Griffith, 44 in Snowy Valleys, 42 in Greater Hume, 38 in Cootamundra-Gundagai, 27 in Junee, 19 in Temora, 18 in Leeton, 12 in Lockhart, eight in Coolamon.

The MLHD has the fourth-lowest number of daily cases, above Western NSW LHD at 153, Southern NSW LHD at 123 and 13 from Far West LHD, but less than Mid North Coast LHD at 289.

NSW Health also announced a new policy on Friday evening designed to ensure continued delivery of essential health services by allowing healthcare workers who have been declared close contacts with an infected person to continue working.

Under the new policy, asymptomatic healthcare workers in NSW's public and private facilities who are classified as close contacts will, in exceptional circumstances, be permitted to leave self-isolation so these key services are not disrupted.

"If these workers develop any symptoms of COVID-19 they must immediately seek a PCR test and not attend the workplace until a negative result is received," a NSW Health statement said.

"With increasing case numbers and large numbers of close contacts in self-isolation, NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard [on Friday] signed an exemption to the Public Health Order to minimise potential impacts on health services across the state.

"The exemption allows these close contacts to leave self-isolation to attend their workplace, provided they have been identified by their employer as critical to the service and cannot work from home."

Under the exemption, healthcare workers must travel directly to and from their residence to their workplace. They are required to wear a mask at all times in their workplace, unless eating or drinking or providing services where it needs to be removed. Exempted workers will also be required to comply with risk-management strategies.

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