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NSW could suspend elective surgery, shut nightclubs, ban singing and dancing in pubs, and pause major events, after the state recorded another 34,994 COVID-19 cases.
The changes to the rules are expected to be finalised later this morning, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
Venues are set to be discouraged from allowing people to standup while drinking. Meanwhile, major events would be risk-assessed by NSW Health and postponed if required.
NSW on Thursday also reported six deaths including a vaccinated and otherwise healthy ACT man in his 20s who died at Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital.
The other fatalities were four men and a woman aged in their 60s, 80s and 90s. Two were from Lake Macquarie in the Hunter Region and three from western Sydney.
The number of people in hospital (1609) and intensive care units (131), as well as those on ventilators (38) also rose.
Premier Dominic Perrottet warned the state may suspend elective surgeries to relieve pressure on the hospital system.
Private hospitals could also be asked to help 'in managing ... these increases in cases', he said.
Australian Medical Association NSW president Danielle McMullen said the indication elective surgery could be cancelled was 'yet another sign of a system in crisis' and suspending surgeries was an 'avoidable' move that "will have profound consequences for patients".
'Elective surgery shouldn't be a tap that government turns on and off to cover for serious cracks in our
