A Wollongong woman is one of the latest people to be diagnosed with COVID-19 with her case linked to the growing Thai Rock restaurant cluster.
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According to the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health district, the woman is in her 20s and is isolating at home.
There have now been 131 cases diagnosed within the local health district.
Her case is linked to the Wetherill Park Thai restaurant cluster, where there were three extra cases found in the past 24 hours.
The case was one of 17 new cases of COVID-19 identified in NSW in the day to 8pm Sunday, with nine found outside of hotel quarantine.
NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said most of the others were linked to exisiting restaurant and funeral clusters, but said two cases remained under investigation.
One of these, which was found in a man in his 40s in South Western Sydney, has not been linked to any cluster so far.
Three were linked to the Thai Rock outbreak and four are linked to a funeral at St Brendan's Catholic church in Bankstown.
One of the funeral cases includes a child - who also attended a school in western Sydney - and there are now nine cases linked to the funeral.
Dr Chant highlighted that most of today's new cases had been transmitted to close contacts and between household members, which she said showed how the virus was most likely to spread.
She said there were now 101 cases being treated by NSW Health, with five patients in ICU and one being ventilated.
"I'm pleased that in the largest extent, the cases are linked to known clusters," Dr Chant said, when asked how the state was tracking in this second outbreak.
"But this is critical time... We are doing a lot of action in South Western Sydney and Western Sydney to close down any clusters, but we've got to be away that we could have transmission chains in other parts of the state.
"That's why everyone has a part to play."
No new cases have been linked to the Crossroads Hotel or Batemans Bay Soldiers Club outbreaks.
Dr Chant said she was "incredibly pleased" with the response of the Batemans Bay community, saying the testing rate and quick isolation has helped to stem any major outbreak.
She asked people to not be put off by the wet weather and ensure they are still coming forward for testing, to keep the state's testing rate high.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian reiterated that strict compliance with the rules was critical to control the spread of the virus "so it doesn't get control of our state".
"There has been a marked improvement in business being business safe, but there is still more to do," she said, noting tighter rules had been enforced across the state over the weekend.
She noted most of the cases in the past couple of weeks had spread at family celebrations or condolences, and said weddings, funerals or indoor events continued to be a concern.
"They've been family celebrations or condolences, whether it's weddings or funerals or hospitality or indoor events so we know what the highest risk areas are," she said.
"We know that funerals are terribly emotional time for people, please unless it's your immediate household, you cannot have physical contact whether it's a wedding or a funeral."
Meantime, Victoria has recorded its worst daily numbers yet with an additional 532 cases of coronavirus identified over the past 24 hours. There were also six further deaths in the state.
Ms Berejiklian said the Victoria situation "could be us in a few weeks" if residents of NSW did not heed the public health advice.
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Kate McIlwain
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
