A dramatic spike to 633 new COVID-19 cases in NSW has marked a grim milestone with the premier warning "we haven't seen the worst of it".
The state's previous high of 478 cases on Monday was easily eclipsed by 155, as Gladys Berejiklian revealed that every person with the virus was passing it on multiple times.
"According to the data we have every person who has the virus is spreading it to at least more than one person," she said on Wednesday.
"So what the data is telling us in the last few days is that we haven't seen the worst of it."
The isolation status of 447 cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Tuesday remains under investigation.
The premier rejected suggestions that harsher restrictions akin to those in Melbourne were needed, saying the lockdown was appropriate and extremely strict.
She maintains that a lack of compliance is the issue.
"In one day alone, more than 400 people police know of across the state ... left their house for the wrong reason," she said.
"You can have the strictest rules in place ... Delta leaves no room for anybody doing the wrong thing."
Southwest and western Sydney remain the highest for transmissions with 440 of the recent cases occurring in those areas.
"I can't express enough my level of concern at these rising numbers of cases," Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said.
"Shop local, stay local, and spend the least time in a place where there are other people that you can."
Dr Chant said vaccination rates were still far too low and there were now 462 COVID patients in hospital, with 77 in intensive care and 25 on ventilators.
Deputy Premier John Barilaro said 17 of the 23 new cases recorded in western NSW overnight were in Dubbo, with the remainder in Mudgee and Narromine and Gilgandra.
One case is in Bourke and three are in Wilcannia after the state's west reported one in outback Broken Hill on Monday.
NSW police issued 736 penalty notices on the third day of their ramped-up operation with the support of 800 Australian Defence Force members.
"It's disappointing, there is absolutely no doubt about that," Deputy Police Commissioner Gary Worboys said.
A month after NSW opened up a series of grants for businesses Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello apologised for significant delays.
"The quality of service we provided over the last month is not up to standard," he said.
"We have never had this level of demand before and when we were setting up this grant program, in many ways we were flying and building the plane at the same time."
"Out of 260,000 grants received so far about 200,000 had been paid or approved and would receive money in the next few days", he said, while the rest were still being worked on.
From Thursday those aged 16 - 39 living in the 12 local government areas of concern will be given priority access to 530,000 Pfizer doses provided by the federal government.
Meanwhile, Orange MP Philip Donato has lashed the state government for redirecting Pfizer vaccines from the regions to Year 12 students in Greater Sydney.
He's received a flood of messages from constituents, including frontline health workers and vulnerable people, who've had their vaccination appointments cancelled.
Most of the locals surveyed said their cancelled appointments were yet to be rescheduled, while others will have to wait up to nine weeks, he said.
Australian Defence Force members will join Dubbo and Newcastle police from Wednesday to help with welfare doorknocks and compliance checks.
Some 50 personnel will be deployed in each region with more expected by the end of the week.
NSW Health has also clarified that people can attend a gravesite for compassionate reasons such as an anniversary of a dead child or following a recent death of someone close.
