NSW recorded 268 new locally acquired COVID-19 cases and two more deaths on Friday, with more than half of them detected outside Greater Sydney.
In the 24-hours to 8pm on Thursday there were 54 positive tests returned in the Hunter New England Local Health District, 52 in the Murrumbidgee area and 13 on the state's Mid North Coast, with additional cases in the Illawarra Shoalhaven region and Southern NSW.
An unvaccinated woman in her 90s died at a Tarrawanna aged care facility, north of Wollongong, where she acquired her infection, and a man in his 70s died at an Albury aged care facility in Albury, where he acquired his infection.
He had received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
There have been 566 COVID-19 related deaths in NSW since the start of the pandemic.
There are 363 people hospitalised with the virus, with 80 people in intensive care, 32 of whom require ventilation.
One new overseas case was detected from the 82,840 tests in the latest reporting period.
Some 93.5 per cent of NSW residents over 16 have received at least one vaccine, with 87 per cent fully vaccinated.
Of those aged 12 to 15, 78.7 per cent have had one dose and 56.7 per cent have received both.
Meanwhile, a pilot program for rapid antigen home testing kits in public schools will begin in Albury, near the Victorian border, next week.
"I want to see disruption to our students' education from COVID reduce, while still keeping schools safe places to learn," Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said on Friday.
"This requires us to deploy every tool available to balance the risk."
The kits will be handed out by schools for use at home by staff and students who have to do a test twice a week as part of community surveillance.
They will also be used for close contact testing to identify positive cases on school sites.
"This is about living with a virus and getting back to normal life while ensuring the community is confident in their safety on school sites," Ms Mitchell said in a statement.
"Our best line of defence against this pandemic remains vaccinations, and until all students are eligible for one we must continue using measures like [rapid test] kits to keep schools safe."
However, anyone who gets a positive result will have to get a standard test straight away to confirm the result.
NSW Health's ongoing sewage surveillance program detected fragments of the virus that causes COVID-19 in samples collected from across NSW, including Mullumbimby, Quirindi, Coonabarabran, Nyngan, Corowa and Holbrook.
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