It's understood the fatalities were from the Wollongong area and among 21 deaths across the state for that reporting period.

It comes as Southern IML Pathology drive-through testing clinics remain closed across the Illawarra.

Read more: Illawarra parents, childcare educators confused over 'test to stay' rules

NSW Health said as increasingly people follow their advice to use rapid antigen tests for diagnosing COVID-19, the number of PCR tests would underestimate the true number of people who have tested positive for the virus.

Of the latest reported numbers, 1152 cases were from Wollongong Local Government Area (LGA), 467 cases from Shellharbour LGA, 419 cases from Shoalhaven LGA , and 131 cases from Kiama LGA.

As at 8pm Tuesday there were 93 patients in hospital in the ISLHD as a result of COVID.

It has been the pandemic's most deadliest day for the state.

Of those that died: one person was aged in their 30s, one person was aged in their 40s, two people were aged in their 50s, four people were aged in their 60s, six people were aged in their 70s, four people were aged in their 80s, two people were aged in their 90s and one person was aged 100+.

Of the 21 people who died; 12 were vaccinated, eight were not vaccinated and one person had received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Case numbers across the state have also soared, with 34,759 new infections recorded in the 24-hour period, up from 25,870 a day prior.

Read more: What you need to know about NSW's mandatory RAT result reporting

There were 134,411 tests recorded, 2246 people in hospital and 175 patients in intensive care.

The total number of active cases across the state is 333,235.

Victoria also recorded 21 deaths in the 24 hours to 8pm on Tuesday.

Drive-through clinics by Southern IML Pathology continue to be closed on Wednesday in the hope to "improve current turn-around-times for COVID-19 test results".

The following testing clinics will remained closed on Wednesday January 12, Thursday January 13 and Friday January 14:

Meanwhile, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) is calling on the federal government to urgently repair what it calls the nation's troubled vaccine rollout for children aged five to 11.

The college says it has had widespread reports of practices receiving insufficient stock or expired vaccine doses, having orders cancelled at the last minute or doses not arriving without any explanation.

The RACGP wants the federal government to work with state and territory governments to make additional paediatric vaccines available to general practices, ensure GPs receive the doses they request, make more doses available to GPs and improve lines of communication between government and general practice teams.

"GPs and their practice teams are trying to vaccinate the nation's children with one arm tied behind their back," RACGP president Dr Karen Price said.

"Omicron cases are escalating and term one of school is fast approaching. Urgent improvements to the children's vaccine rollout must happen now so that our kids can receive at least one vaccine dose before returning to the classroom.

"GPs are telling me that they can't obtain enough stock, whilst others have had their orders cancelled at the last minute or received expired doses. Some practices are being given 50 or 100 doses a week when they have around 1500 children on their books. It's not hard to do the maths and realise that we simply cannot keep up with demand."

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