Two Shellharbour residents and a woman from Shoalhaven are among 30 new COVID-related deaths in NSW.
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All three were vaccinated against COVID-19 and included a man in his 80s, a man in his 70s, and a woman in her 80s.
The Illawarra Shoalhaven has recorded another 659 infections, with 335 in Wollongong, 145 in Shellharbour 29 in Kiama and 150 in Shoalhaven.
The local health district's hospitals are treating 174 COVID patients.
Across NSW there have been another 12,818 COVID cases and 30 deaths.
These deaths include people who were aged in their 30s, 50s, 70s, 80s and 90s.
Chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant said a man in his 30s who died had received two doses of the vaccine and had no significant underlying health conditions.
A woman in her 50s who had underlying health conditions was unvaccinated.
There are 2749 people in hospital with COVID, including 183 in intensive care, of whom 70 are on ventilators.
Dr Chant said vaccination rates continued to rise but she "would love that pace to pick up".
Almost 45 per cent of eligible people have had a booster shot, 39 per cent of five to 11-year-olds have had their first dose, and 78.5 per cent of 12 to 15-year-olds have had their second shot.
Meanwhile, non-urgent elective surgery will resume in NSW from Monday, February 7.
Non-urgent elective surgery requiring an overnight stay will return to 75 per cent capacity in private hospitals, and up to 75 per cent of pre-pandemic activity levels at regional and rural public hospitals, where they are able to do so.
It will take longer for non-urgent surgeries to return in metropolitan hospitals.
These surgeries were suspended on January 10 in response to the surge of Omicron COVID-19 cases and associated hospitalisations.
The Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District said its hospital teams were working on a reimplementation plan, "taking into account local circumstances including the availability of staff".
In a statement, the organisation said there were still high numbers of people needing hospital treatment for COVID and COVID-positive people being admitted to hospital, in addition to higher presentations for non-COVID related injury and illness.
"In addition, there are around 150 ISLHD health care workers in isolation on any given day as a result of being exposed to COVID-19, further impacting the district's capacity," the district said.
Over the past month, urgent and semi-urgent elective surgeries have continued, as have most non-urgent day surgeries.
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