NSW sustained its deadliest day of the pandemic, with 36 COVID-19 fatalities recorded, as health authorities brace for an increase in cases when children return to school later this month.
The number of people with the virus in hospital rose to 2,850, while ICU admissions were up slightly to 209.
There were a total of 29,830 new cases in the reporting period, taken from 13,763 rapid antigen tests (RATs) and 16,067 PCR tests.
Previously, the highest number of deaths recorded in a day was 29.
The latest fatality figure brings the total number of NSW COVID-19 deaths to 919.
Premier Dominic Perrottet said 1.2 million RATs arrived in the state overnight and another 15 million were expected to come over the next week.
"They will be crucial in ensuring that we provide support for our health workers at this time, to get schools open on the first day of term one this year," he said during a press conference.
"Often over the last two years, we can get focused on reporting the numbers, we shouldn't forget behind every one of those numbers is a loved one who passed away, for somebody who is in hospital ICU and going through a very difficult time," the Premier said.
He said RATs would be a cornerstone of the NSW government's blueprint to get children back in classrooms.
The final return-to-school plan is expected to be announced after national cabinet on Thursday.
It remains to be seen if this plan will include daycare and preschools.
"We are working through that and obviously the federal government has agreed that in those circumstances we will have a 50-50 funding arrangement," he said.
"We appreciate that financial support to help kids get back in the classroom but we will be using the rapid antigen tests that have been purchased in New South Wales to ensure frontline service delivery.
"The World Health [Organisation] has said, schools should be the last to close and the first to open."
Chief health officer Kerry Chant said the trajectory of case numbers was lower than the best-case scenario in pandemic modelling released by NSW Health earlier this month.
"The fact that our projections are tracking under the current curve, the fact that the numbers have stabilised, give us some hope that we have been slowing the spread," Dr Chant said.
She said restrictions, such as a ban on singing and dancing, reintroduced earlier this month were having an impact on infection rates.
However, she warned health authorities were anticipating an uptick again once schools return.
NSW Health deputy secretary Susan Pearce said tens of thousands of vaccine booster appointments were going unclaimed.
"Last week, we had over 70,000 bookings available in our clinics that weren't taken up," she said.
"We just cannot urge the community strongly enough to please come and get their booster dose and while 50 per cent of the eligible population have been boosted, that means there is another 50 per cent out there who are yet to receive that third dose."
Despite the growing death toll, a strained health system and worker shortages across many sectors, Premier Perrottet was confident about his government's handling of the outbreak.
"Based on the vaccination rate in this state … we can remain safe and will push through this next challenging period of time," he told ABC Radio Sydney.
"This is not simply a New South Wales issue — this is a global issue ... and our settings mirror the settings in Victoria.
"We're not an island here in New South Wales."
Mr Perrottet acknowledged people were anxious about the state's virus crisis, but insisted living with COVID-19 was the only way forward.
"[Lockdowns] might minimise transmission of the virus but then as you open up again we will have the virus spread," he said.
He said the government was considering further support packages for businesses.
"You don't rush support out," Mr Perrottet said.
"What you do is analyse and consult and work out where is the need, where's the best place to provide that support and then deliver it."
Tuesday's 36 deaths include 22 men and 14 women aged between their 40s and 90s.
