The number of new COVID-19 cases in the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District has risen again, with 255 positive test results in one day.
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Of these, 185 are from Wollongong, 32 are from Shellharbour, nine are from Kiama, and 29 are from Shoalhaven.
The new figure represents the highest-ever daily case number for the district, the second consecutive day it has marked this record.
Meanwhile, the number of new cases in NSW has skyrocketed to 11,201, up from 6062 the previous day.
Chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant said the numbers would "jump around" in the coming days, which would reflect the testing numbers over Christmas.
Dr Chant said the community still had a role to play in suppressing the spread of the disease, advising people to get a test and stay home if they had symptoms.
There are now 625 people hospitalised with COVID, who include 15 patients receiving care in the Illawarra Shoalhaven LHD's hospitals.
Sixty-one people are in intensive care, with 23 on ventilators.
Another three people have died, including two women from Newcastle, aged in their 70s and 90s, one of whom had received two vaccine doses and the other three.
Both had underlying health conditions and lived in aged care, which is where they acquired their infections.
A man in his 80s, who had two doses of the vaccine and had underlying conditions, has also died.
There were 157,758 tests reported to 8pm Tuesday, up from the previous day's total of 93,581.
The state's testing system continues to suffer under huge levels of strain, and people are urged to only get tested if they're symptomatic or NSW Health has directed them to do so.
Dr Chant said the state's testing capabilities were constrained by the higher level of the virus in the community.
"When you have a higher positivity rate, it tells us two things: that we are probably not... getting to all of the cases, so there's probably more disease in the community than our numbers reflect," she said.
"But it also has impacts on our laboratory... when we've got that higher positivity rate, it means some of the techniques the laboratories have used to increase that lab throughput are no longer able to be used, and that's decreased our overall capacity."
Professor Dominic Dwyer from NSW Health Pathology explained this was because labs had been pooling groups of test samples together to process them quicker.
All the samples have to be retested individually if the group returns a positive result, and with more cases, it makes for a longer process.
"So we've lost that advantage to maximise our capacity through pooling," Professor Dwyer said.
NSW Health has also recently changed its approach to contact tracing, and is focusing its efforts on household contacts of cases as well as places with vulnerable people where COVID cases might have worked or visited.
Otherwise, the government is asking people who have tested positive to advise those they have spent time with of their infection.
"NSW Health will only contact with a small number of exposed people to direct them into self-isolation under the public health order," the department said.
NSW Health continues to urge people aged 18 and over to receive a booster dose of the vaccine as soon as they are eligible.
That is currently five months from receiving the second dose, but the gap will shorten to four months on January 4.
People aged 12 and over who are severely immunocompromised should get a third shot two months after their second.
Ninety-five per cent of NSW residents aged 16 and over have had at least one jab, while 93.5 per cent are fully vaccinated.
Among children aged 12 to 15, 78.2 per cent are fully vaccinated and 81.5 per cent have had at least one shot.
The vaccine rollout for children aged five to 11 begins on January 10.
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Natalie Croxon
Reporter at the Illawarra Mercury, mostly covering social affairs. Previously of the Bendigo Advertiser, Northern Daily Leader and Quirindi Advocate. Our Watch award winner.
Reporter at the Illawarra Mercury, mostly covering social affairs. Previously of the Bendigo Advertiser, Northern Daily Leader and Quirindi Advocate. Our Watch award winner.
