New South Wales recorded 961 locally acquired cases of COVID-19 and nine deaths in the 24 hours to 8pm Saturday.
There were 45 new cases in the Hunter New England local health district.
Nineteen were from Lake Macquarie local government area, 15 were from Newcastle, five were from Cessnock, four were from Maitland, one was from Singleton and one the Mid-Coast.
Twenty-eight of the 45 new cases were infectious in the community.
Thirty-two are linked to known exposures or family clusters while six cases remain under investigation.
More than 106,000 tests were undertaken in the reporting period.
NSW Health's Dr Jeremy McAnulty said more than 1000 people were in hospital with the virus, including 222 in intensive care of which 170 were on ventilators.
He said the main suburbs of concern were in Greater Sydney, while the virus has been detected in sewage systems in a number of regional towns including Muswellbrook and Grafton.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said 59.2 per cent of the state's eligible population were now fully vaccinated and 85.2 per cent had received their first dose.
She said the government would unveil a reopening plan this week, but it was yet to decided which restrictions would ease at the 70 and 80 per cent fully-vaccinated mark.
She highlighted there were "more case numbers than we'd like to see" in the Central Coast and Illawarra.
"Hold the line, it's really important we work hard now," she said.
The government did not mention any planned lockdowns for the Hunter LGAs not under stay-at-home orders, despite two unlinked cases in Singleton on Saturday sparking concern it would have restrictions imposed again.
There was also COVID-19 detected in the Dungog sewage system on Saturday.
Both Singleton and Dungog were only released from lockdown about 10 days prior.
