Hospitals across Hunter New England Health district are treating 14 COVID patients, the fewest since September, as vaccination rates climb to 90 per cent.
The Hunter reached an adult full vaccination rate of 89 per cent on Sunday and by now has likely surged past the 90 per cent milestone.
The region's double-dose indigenous adult vaccination rate lags behind at 76.8 per cent, according to federal government data issued on Wednesday, up from 71.8 per cent a week earlier.
The ratio of Aboriginal people aged 15 and over who have received their first dose increased only one percentage point to 85 per cent over the past week.
The health district recorded 35 new cases on Wednesday, including 27 in Hunter local government areas and eight in New England or the Mid North Coast.
Seven of the cases were in Newcastle, six in Port Stephens and Cessnock, four in Lake Macquarie and MidCoast, two in Tamworth and Maitland and one each in Dungog, Inverell, Singleton and Moree Plains.
At a suburb or town level, Maryland, Raymond Terrace, Weston and Taree had three cases each.
Twenty-two cases were infectious in the community and nine had not been linked to previous known cases.
The daily case count was down from 64 on Tuesday, but HNEH has recorded more cases in the past four weeks (1595) than any other NSW health district.
NSW reported 190 new cases and four deaths in the 24 hours to 8pm on Tuesday.
The state's hospitals are treating 309 people with COVID-19, 68 of whom are in intensive care.
The number of patients with COVID-19 in ICUs across NSW has fallen steadily from a high of 242 on September 21 and has halved in the past 18 days.
The four new fatalities were in their 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s. Two were from western Sydney, one from south-west Sydney and one from Queanbeyan.
Three of those who died were not vaccinated and one person, a woman in her 80s with underlying health conditions, had received two doses of a vaccine.
Across NSW, 93.6 per cent of people aged 16 and over have had one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 88.3 per cent have had at least two.
Among children aged 12 to 15, 79.5 per cent have had their first dose and 63.7 per cent are fully vaccinated.
Almost 65 per cent of the entire Australian population, including children, is now fully vaccinated and three quarters have received one dose.
NSW Health will operate a series of walk-in Pfizer vaccinations clinics in the Hunter this week for people aged 12 and up, including people ready for a booster shot.
The clinics are at Windale PCYC and Cessnock vaccination centre on Friday, Dungog's Doug Walters Pavilion on Saturday and Toronto's Westlakes Community Health centre and Francis Greenway High on Sunday.
The following NSW public schools are currently non-operational due to COVID-19:
- Albury North Public School
- Anna Bay Public School
- Callaghan College Wallsend
- Casino High School
- Condell Park High School
- Kelso Public School
- Kirrawee Public School
- Ourimbah Public School
- Queanbeyan Public School
- Singleton Heights Public School
- Tacking Point Public School
- Tingha Public School
- Wellington Public School
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