Thousands more Hunter residents face the strain of long testing queues and at least a week in isolation after the region's daily case count exploded again on Wednesday.
Hunter New England Health district reported a record 2961 new COVID-19 cases, including 2352 in the Hunter, in the 24 hours to 8pm on Tuesday. The previous HNEH case record was 1983 on New Year's Eve.
Newcastle local government area added 704 cases, Lake Macquarie 684, Maitland 450, Port Stephens 223 and Cessnock 135.
More than 18,000 people have tested positive across the five Lower Hunter council areas in the past month, including an estimated 3.37 per cent of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie population.
The district's COVID hospital admissions edged up from 70 to 71 on Wednesday and intensive care numbers fell from six to five.
NSW reported 35,054 new cases, almost 12,000 more than the previous record, as one in three tests returned a positive result.
NSW COVID hospital admissions grew by 142 to 1491, intensive care cases were up from 104 to 119 and the number of patients on ventilators rose from 27 to 32.
Eight more people died with the virus, the highest daily toll since October 17.
One of the people who died was in their 90s, two were in their 80s, two were in their 70s, two were in their 60s and one was in their 50s.
National cabinet agreed on Wednesday to provide up to 10 free rapid antigen tests over three months to about 6.6 million Australians on concession cards, but Prime Minister Scott Morrison stopped short of offering them to everyone.
National cabinet also scrapped the requirement for positive rapid antigen tests to be confirmed by a PCR test, a move which could cut testing queues but make it harder to track case numbers.
"We have no choice but to ride the wave. What's the alternative? What we must do is press on," Mr Morrison said.
He said people should report positive antigen tests to their doctor, but without a PCR test these cases will not show up in official case figures.
NSW Health data issued on Wednesday show how the initial days of the state's omicron outbreak in Newcastle had an immediate impact on the authority's ability to contact new cases and trace their close contacts.
The department's COVID-19 surveillance report for the week ending December 18 shows the proportion of cases notified to NSW Health by labs within one day of specimen collection fell from 86 to 58 per cent in a week.
The number of cases fully interviewed by public health staff within a day of notification to NSW Health dropped from 95 per to 59 per cent between December 11 and December 18.
Almost three weeks later, contact tracing is virtually non-existent and the state and federal governments have strictly limited the criteria for seeking a test.
The report estimates that 57.9 per cent of those who tested positive for the omicron variant between November 26 and December 18 were aged from 20 to 29.
Only 5.4 per cent were older than 50.
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