More than 40 Hunter schools have closed for cleaning and COVID-19 contact tracing since students returned to face-to-face lessons last month.
The Education Department said on Friday that 41 schools, most of them primary campuses, had been shut since October 5.
The affected schools have been spread across the Cessnock, Dungog, Lake Macquarie, Muswellbrook, Newcastle, Port Stephens, Singleton and Upper Hunter local government areas.
Seven Catholic schools are among the 41.
One of the school closures this week has forced an entire year 1 class into two weeks of isolation. The students cannot return until they show proof of a negative test in mid-November.
Most of the schools have shut down for one or two days, at times leaving parents and students facing an anxious wait for test results and news of their contact status.
Some schools have closed more than once.
Hunter New England Health confirmed this week that transmission of the coronavirus had been occurring in the region among children in school settings since face-to-face learning resumed, though health officials say no children have become seriously ill with COVID-19 in the Hunter during the pandemic.
New Lambton South Public and Gateshead's Wiripaang Public joined the list of closures on Friday.
A parent at New Lambton South said the closure was "much harder for the kids than the actual lockdown time".
The HNEH district recorded 73 cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Thursday, including 15 in Newcastle, seven in Lake Macquarie, 14 in MidCoast, four in Port Stephens, six in Cessnock, one in Singleton, six in Tamworth, one in Maitland, one in Armidale, three in Inverell and 15 in Moree Plains. The district's hospitals are treating 16 COVID patients, including three in intensive care.
NSW reported 249 cases and three deaths on Friday, including a Sydney man in his 80s who had received one dose of a vaccine.
A woman in her 90s who had received two vaccine doses became the sixth death linked to Mercy Place aged care in Albury.
A woman in her 80s who had received one dose died at Southern Cross Care in Albury.
The state now has 89.4 per cent of its population aged 16 years and older fully vaccinated while 93.8 per cent have had a single dose.
NSW hospitals are treating 285 cases, including 61 in intensive care.
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