More than one in six NSW children aged 12 to 15 have received a first COVID-19 vaccine dose.
The state recorded 1083 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm on Saturday night, the lowest daily figure in more than three weeks and a substantial drop on the previous day's case count of 1331.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said on Sunday that 17 per cent of the state's 390,000 children aged 12 to 15 had received a Pfizer dose since vaccines became available to that age group on September 13.
She announced that the government would drop the special restrictions in the 12 areas of concern in Sydney from Monday, except for conditions governing authorised workers and permits.
Ms Berejiklian also said public pools would open across NSW from Monday, September 27, the second week of the school holidays.
NSW reported 13 deaths from COVID-19 on Sunday, including one person in their 40s, two people in their 50s, two people in their 60s, five people in their 70s and three people in their 80s.
Five of the fatalities were from western Sydney, two from south-western Sydney, two from northern Sydney, two from Sydney's inner-city, one from southern Sydney and one from Dubbo.
Of the 13 people who died with COVID-19, nine people were not vaccinated, two people had received one dose of a vaccine and two people, a man in his 80s and a woman in her 70s, both with underlying health conditions, had received two doses.
Of the new locally acquired cases:
- 302 are from South Western Sydney Local Health District (LHD)
- 293 are from Western Sydney LHD
- 159 are from South Eastern Sydney LHD
- 115 are from Sydney LHD
- 64 are from Illawarra Shoalhaven LHD
- 48 are from Nepean Blue Mountains LHD
- 26 are from Northern Sydney LHD
- 20 are from Central Coast LHD
- 13 are from Hunter New England LHD
- 10 are from Far West LHD
- eight are from Western NSW LHD
- seven are from Southern NSW LHD
- three are from Mid North Coast LHD
- one is from Northern NSW LHD
- eight are in correctional settings
- six cases are yet to be assigned to an LHD.
The state has reported 241 COVID-related deaths in NSW since June 16 and 297 since the start of the pandemic.
Across NSW, 81.9 per cent of the over-16 population has received a first vaccine dose and 51.9 per cent are fully vaccinated. These vaccine rates are to midnight on Friday.
NSW Health's ongoing sewage surveillance program has detected fragments of the virus that causes COVID-19 in samples from Cowra in western NSW, Dareton in far western NSW, South Kempsey on the mid north coast and Ballina on the north coast.
Fragments were earlier detected at Eden on the southern coast, Byron Bay, Ballina and Wardell on the north coast, Balranald in far west and Griffith in the Murrumbidgee.