There are 279 COVID-19 cases being treated by NSW Health, including 39 people being treated in intensive care units at hospitals across the state, with 23 on ventilators. Meantime 118,863 have been tested for the virus and excluded.

Sadly, 16 have died in NSW. These include four deaths overnight - including three men aged 91, 80 and 76 in Port Macquarie and Westmead hospitals who were all passengers on the Ruby Princess. The fourth man, aged 61, died at Hornsby Hospital.

On Friday morning, there were 103 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District. A 75-year-old man, a passenger on Ovation of the Seas, died in Wollongong Hospital on Friday.

During a public address on Sunday morning, NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard asked the community to continue to take all precautions.

"This is an extremely dangerous virus - it's still marching through our community and people need to be on high alert," he said.

Mr Hazzard also urged younger people to take the risk seriously. He said around a quarter of the total cases in the state (565) had been confirmed in people aged under 29; while there were just over 100 cases in those under 19.

"If you don't take it seriously for yourself, you should be taking it seriously for your friends, your family, your community," he said, "because you can also be passing it on to older, more vulnerable, people."

And people must heed the travel warnings, Mr Hazzard said.

"On the north coast, central and south coast we're seeing large numbers of people coming into those areas, five days out from Easter, which is quite appalling," he said.

"If you've headed off for a sneaky little holiday, my message to you is go home."

Reports that health workers were being abused in NSW was also appalling.

"There's reports that nurses are being physically and verbally attacked - doctors too," he said.

"I remind that very small section of the community that that very same doctor, that very same nurse, when you see that person in a uniform in the hospital and they might be putting a tube down your throat to keep your alive, you'll wish you hadn't done what you had previously."

Meanwhile, NSW Police Force Marine Area Command has concluded the largest maritime operation undertaken in Sydney Harbour to co-ordinate the crew movements and departure of five cruise ships

In total more than 1300 crew members, who were Foreign Nationals, were moved between the five ships in numerous tender operations, before the ships departed NSW waters to return to their home countries. Five Australian crew members elected to remain on the ships and continue to international ports.

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