THE Hunter New England Health District (HNEHD) COVID-19 tally rose by 14 fresh cases today, Tuesday, September 14 taking the outbreak to 324 infections.
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Seven of the district's ases were infectious in the community, and 10 are linked.
Half fall within Newcastle local government area (LGA), with five from Mayfield and a case each in North Lambton and Wallsend.
In the lower Hunter only Cessnock avoided a fresh case.
There were two cases in Singleton, one in Raymond Terrace, one in Tenambit and three in Lake Macquarie.
The Lake Macquarie cases include two at Wangi Wangi and one at Wyee Point.
The area on Tuesday added several fresh exposure sites.
Tuesday's figures mean the region now has 174 active cases, 555 close contacts and ten people in hospital.
None are in intensive care.
Nine new cases were confirmed on the Central Coast, taking that area's total tally to 278.
NSW Health Dr Jeremy McAnulty announced 1127 cases had been detected across the State in the 24 hours to 8pm on Monday, with eight overseas positive cases.
114,084 tests were conducted in the same period.
Dr McAnulty said the weekend and good weather may have led to lower testing numbers, and it was too early to say the peak had passed.
"It's too soon to know if we've been flattening the curve, but ... it's really nice to see immunisation rates increasing so quickly," he said.
"We'd like to see a few more days before we can be confident there's a trend."
78.8 per cent of people have received a first dose, with 46.5 per cent of people fully vaccinated.
1253 people with COVID are in NSW hospitals, with 231 requiring intensive care and 134 needing ventilation.
Two deaths were reported - a woman in her 80s from Sydney who had received a dose of vaccine and had underlying conditions, and a man in his 50s who died at Concord.
He had received his first dose three days before testing positive, but did not have underlying conditions.
The two take NSW's death toll since June to 187.
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