Two people from the Hunter region were among the 22 who died with COVID-19 across NSW in the 24 hours to 8pm on Saturday.
Hunter New England Health announced on Sunday afternoon that a woman aged in her 70s from the Singleton local government area and a woman in her 80s from Port Stephens had died with the virus.
The health district recorded 1012 new cases during the period - 636 of those were the result of rapid antigen testing and 376 came from PCR tests.
There are 38 people with COVID-19 in Hunter New England hospitals, including four in intensive care.
It came as NSW reported 6686 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19.
There are 1614 people in hospital with the virus across the state, 93 of whom are in intensive care, after the number of hospitalisations fell below 2000 on Wednesday for the first time since January.
Three people who died were aged under 65 and all were double-vaccinated with underlying health conditions.