There were also, sadly, three more deaths in a man in his 60s, a man in his 70s and a woman in her 80s.

Nearly 100 people are in intensive care, with 34 of those requiring ventilation. Most of the cases were unvaccinated, but it’s not all bad news.

NSW administered 45,000 vaccines in the past 24 hours, with NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard highlighting the state’s “extraordinary” vaccination uptake and the “pretty good” future it’s propelling us toward.

He said NSW is “now amongst the highest, if not the highest, in the world in terms of vaccination rates”.

Nearly 60 per cent of NSW residents have had their first dose, and 31 per cent have had two doses.

“That only happens when the citizens of NSW come forward to try and keep themselves, their families and the balance of our community in NSW safe, and in our broader Australian community,” he said.

“I am pleased, very pleased, that the vaccination rate in NSW is now quite extraordinary, I want to thank the residents of NSW for coming out in great numbers to be vaccinated.”

The health minister was also probed about whether Sydney would open up when it reaches an 80 per cent vaccination rate.

“I think that is the aim of the game here, to get 80 per cent of the community across the entire nation (vaccinated),” he said.

“I’m confident as we move forward to 80 per cent, we will have a lot more normality in our lives and we are only weeks away now, so if our community keeps getting the vaccines the way they are, NSW will look pretty good by October, November.”

More than 200,000 people were tested in the last reporting period, but some results may be delayed due to a backlog.

One of the people to lose their lives to the virus in the latest reporting period included a man in his 60s from Sydney’s southwest who died at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. He caught the disease while at Canterbury Hospital.

A woman in her 80s died a Wollongong Hospital while a man in his 70s from Sydney’s southeast died at St George Hospital where he acquired his infection.