A Port Stephens man in his 70s was among 18 COVID-19 deaths announced on Saturday.
There were 1145 new cases of COVID-19 in the Hunter New England Health district in the 24 hour reporting period to 4pm Friday - the most of any health district in the state.
Of the new cases, 454 positive results came from PCR tests and 691 from rapid antigen tests.
There are currently 54 people in Hunter New England hospitals with the virus, including five in intensive care. On Friday, there were 57 in hospital and four in ICU.
It comes as NSW recorded less than 10,000 new cases of COVID for the first time since last year.
There were 8389 new cases in the reporting period - the lowest daily case number since December 28, 2021, when 6062 cases were recorded. The number jumped to 11,201 on December 29.
Of the new cases, 5300 came from positive rapid antigen tests while 3089 came from PCR testing.
