Premier Dominic Perrottet insisted on Friday that "life is coming back" to NSW after the state's COVID hospital load fell 31 per cent in a week.
On the eve of NSW by-elections in Willoughby, Strathfield, Bega and Monaro, Mr Perrottet said the state was in a "much better position today than we were after those last two outbreaks".
The government has flagged easing restrictions on February 27, but Mr Perrottet said he could not yet say if this would include ending mask mandates, scrapping QR codes, returning workers to the office or allowing stand-up drinking, singing and dancing in pubs.
The Premier said the government was "working through" which workers would be required to have a vaccine booster dose after national cabinet announced new guidelines on Thursday.
The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation recommended people be classed as "up to date" with their vaccines if they had had a third shot within six months of their second.
The wording shifts away from the "fully vaccinated" tag, though aged care workers and possibly other essential workers are likely to face booster mandates.
Hunter New England Health said on Friday that a Muswellbrook man in his 70s had died with COVID, one of 19 fatalities in the state.
Chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant said 89, or 63 per cent, of the 141 people to die with COVID in NSW this week were men.
The state's COVID hospital case load has fallen from 2494 to 1716 in a week.
The number of COVID patients in intensive care has halved since January 19, from 217 to 108, and is down from 160 a week ago.
NSW Health deputy secretary Susan Pearce said the hospitalisation rate had not fallen as quickly as predicted in modelling, though the hospital load had not reached the peaks forecast in the best-case model.
Hunter New England hospitals are treating 43 COVID patients, including two in intensive care.
The region again topped the state for official positive tests with 1378 in the 24 hours to 4pm Thursday.
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