Testing numbers in Newcastle increased nine-fold in four days as the city's COVID-19 outbreak became known.
The testing numbers in the city went from 712 on Saturday, to 1900 on Sunday - the day the Argyle House exposure was announced - before spiking to 4289 Monday and 6450 on Tuesday.
A second 20-year-old man has now been fined $5000 for breaching self isolation to go to The Argyle House last Wednesday, which then became a super spreader event.
The latest testing numbers were released by Hunter New England Health on Friday, the same day the district recorded 674 fresh cases.
In Lake Macquarie there were 747 tests on Saturday, 1005 on Sunday, 3711 on Monday and 5098 on Tuesday.
In Maitland the numbers quadrupled over the same period, from 407 on Saturday, to 595 on Sunday, 1968 on Monday and 1978 on Tuesday.
Case numbers in the region remained steady on Friday, with a rise of just 41 infections from Thursday, after several days of 200-plus increases.
However, some residents have reported being turned away from testing facilities this week after the sites reached capacity.
Friday's Hunter New England total made up about 30 per cent of the state's 2213 overall infections.
Of the 674 new cases, 308 were from Newcastle, Lake Macquarie had 190, there were 53 from Maitland, 41 from Port Stephens, Cessnock had 24, 13 were from Mid Coast, Singleton had 11, eight were from Tamworth, seven were recorded in Muswellbrook, five were from Upper Hunter, four were from Gunnedah, Inverell had three, Armidale, Walcha and Moree Plains each had two and there was one in Dungog.
The state recorded one death - a Northern Tablelands woman in her 60s, who died at St Vincent's Hospital. She was not vaccinated and had underlying health conditions.
There are currently 2122 active cases in the Hunter New England health district, with 12 of those being cared for in hospitals, and three in ICU.
There have been 185 Omicron cases confirmed across the state so far.
NSW Health put out additional casual contact alerts for The Great Northern (Saturday December 11, 12.01am until close), Finnegans (Saturday December 11, 7pm until close) and The Cambridge hotels (Saturday December 11, 7pm until close and Sunday December 12, 6pm until close) after at least 50 confirmed cases of COVID-19 attended the venues.
Hunter New England is also "strongly" encouraging the community to continue wearing masks in high-density settings after restrictions eased across the state on Wednesday.
48 hour wait for COVID test results
Test result turnarounds have blown out as clinics face huge demand, with people advised of about a 48 hour wait at some clinics.
Histopath is now quoting about a two day wait for results, after initially turning them around in 24 hours or less.
Laverty Pathology currently has a similar wait time, but advised this could quickly change.
"Laverty's current average turnaround time is approximately 48 hours," a spokesperson said.
"While these are our average turnaround times today, if testing numbers rise, these times may fluctuate. We will try to communicate any changes with patients at our collection sites and through our website and social media channels.
"There has been a recent surge in the number of tests being performed in NSW and the team at Laverty is processing a large proportion of these daily tests."
NSW Health said it had the capacity to extend testing hours and introduce more drive-through sites and pop-up clinics "should the need arise".
