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NSW has recorded 207 new cases of COVID-19, with at least 50 of those infectious in the community. 

There was another record day of testing yesterday, with 117,000 people coming forward. 

Meanwhile, the spread of COVID-19 at an aged care home in Sydney's inner-west appears to be linked to Christmas in July party.

LIVE UPDATES: Queensland extends lockdown after 13 new local cases

Nursing home outbreak linked to 'Christmas in July' party

Addressing the aged care outbreak in the daily COVID-19 press conference, NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said 18 patients and two staff at the Wyoming Nursing Home in Summer Hill, also known as Hardi Summer Hill, had been caught up in the facility's COVID-19 outbreak. 

"The positive patients have been removed from that facility and, as a precaution, the remainder of residents of that facility are also being removed," she said. 

"The outbreak is occurring on that top floor and that action has been taken as a precautionary approach.  

"I can confirm that 83 per cent of the patients were vaccinated and 75 percent of staff at the facility were vaccinated." 

Health Minister Brad Hazzard said a Christmas in July lunch – amid lockdown – sparked the outbreak at the nursing home.

"Effectively a super-spreading event that occurred in the facility… sometimes it's not a good idea to have a Christmas in July right in the middle of a pandemic."

Dr Chant later clarified that residents on the bottom floor had not been exposed to the COVID-19 outbreak. 

"All of the residents in the top floor are being removed, some are COVID positive and some of them are COVID negative," she said.

"As a precaution to support the staffing and to reduce any infection control risks in that facility, that action has been taken." 

She said overall, about 30 residents had been removed. 

Dr Chant also said a number of aged care facilities had been affected by the COVID-19 outbreak after a worker had shifts across multiple facilities.

"There has been guidance out, and I understand the Commonwealth has support payments in place to support health workers not working across multiple aged care facilities," she said.

Record testing continues

Earlier today, NSW Premier Berejiklian thanked people for coming out for a record number of tests.

"It shows the community is responding to our calls to maintain the high rights of testing," Premier Gladys Berejiklian said. 

She said workplaces remained the central drivers of the increasing cases. 

A man in his 90s has died after contracting COVID-19, NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant has said. 

He was linked to the outbreak in the aged care ward at Liverpool Hospital. 

Dr Chant said the man had received one dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine. 

Ms Berejiklian has called on NSW residents to make August the month they get vaccinated. 

She said authorities didn't know of anybody in intensive care who had received both doses of the vaccine. 

"In particular our efforts will be focused this week and next week on businesses, on workers who are working in those local government areas (of concern) and having to go out of those eight local government areas in particular, but also people aged between 20 and 40," she said. 

https://twitter.com/NSWHealth/status/1421999411484188678?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Lockdown could lift in regions before August 28

Ms Berejiklian said some areas could emerge from lockdown ahead of the end of August, depending on health advice. 

"If the health experts tell us that the Central Coast, Shellharbour and Wollongong are able to be treated as regional NSW, we will take that advice," she said.  

"It is positive that we have seen very low numbers in those regions. If the health experts say to the NSW government those communities can be treated the same as the rest of regional NSW, we will take that advice."

Living in lockdown 'not a success'

Ms Berejiklian has admitted that lockdown is never a mark of "success". 

Asked if the consistent rates of people infectious in the community were a sign the lockdown had failed, she said, "it is not a success when you have your community living in lockdown". 

"What future success will be is having our population live as safely and as freely as possible," she added.

"I don't think anybody will suggest, least of all me, that living in a lockdown is a good place to be. It is horrible. 

"We know we have no option at this stage." 

Premier 'confident' schools will be open before 2022

Ms Berejiklian has said she is "confident" schools will re-open before 2022. 

However, she has refused to commit to it, saying any decision would be based on health advice. 

"I can't predict the future but I certainly am confident that schools will go back before then," she said. 

She said getting people back to work and back to school was the government's priority. 

Freight, food distribution workplaces spreading outbreak

Dr Chant has listed freight and food processing workplaces as areas of concern for spreading COVID-19. 

"Because of the good processes that people have put in place, they haven't led to large numbers of cases," she said.  

"But they are obviously complex because we need to keep those workplaces operational and we need to do a lot of work, in terms of finding out the close contacts on those big work places." 

She urged people in essential workplaces to avoid social areas like the kitchen or tea room.

Troops on the streets

Hundreds of Australian Defence Force personnel are taking to the streets across Sydney from today, ensuring residents across the city's COVID-19 hotspot suburbs are following the rules.

The highly-visible presence comes as the NSW Premier says the state could see an easing of lockdown restrictions when adult vaccination rates hit 50 per cent.

Around 300 troops will be helping police with compliance checks from this morning, making sure close contacts of confirmed cases are isolating at home.

READ MORE: Restaurant, medical centre and supermarket placed on Sydney exposure sites list

The ADF will be door knocking homes across all of the eight high-risk LGAs including Blacktown, Cumberland, Parramatta, Campbelltown, Canterbury-Bankstown, Fairfield, Georges River and Liverpool.

That's because a majority of the state's coronavirus cases are in those regions and authorities have the next four weeks to contain the spread of the highly infectious Delta strain.

The Navy has also been called on to help with contact tracing.

NSW recorded 239 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 yesterday to equal Thursday's record-breaking figure as the highest yet seen since the start of the pandemic.

READ MORE: Twelve Sydney aged care residents hospitalised with COVID-19

Ms Berejiklian says vaccinations could be Sydney's golden ticket out of lockdown, hinting some restrictions could ease restrictions at the end of the month if jab rates increase.

The current four-week lockdown extension is due to be lifted on August 28.

READ MORE: 'Herculean task' in reaching 80 per cent vaccination rate

"Let August be the month we break records and vaccinations because that is how we get freedom," Ms Berejiklian said.

She noted that the state needed to reach 9.2 million jabs to achieve a vaccination rate of 70 per cent and more than 10 million to reach 80 per cent – the vaccination coverage required to reach the next stages of the Commonwealth government's pathway out of the pandemic.

"But we know that it is also incremental … once we hit milestones, once you get to 50 per cent vaccination, 60 per cent, 70 per cent it obviously triggers more freedoms," Ms Berejiklian said.

As of yesterday, 19 per cent of NSW adults had been fully vaccinated.

NSW was vaccinating about 500,000 people a week but the Premier says that could be increased as more pharmacies start administrating shots and the government opens more hubs.

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Queensland reported 13 new community cases of COVID-19 today, triggering a longer lockdown in the state's south-east which will now run until Sunday as fear over spread of Delta grows.

The new cases are all linked to a known outbreak which now numbers 31, Deputy Premier Steven Miles said, and includes seven students from Ironside State School in Brisbane who tested positive overnight.

One of the new cases had attended a karate school which trains at Ironside State School, potentially opening up further spread.

READ MORE: Hundreds of troops to join police on Sydney's streets from today

Queensland health officials are braced for "a lot of additional cases" with one of the positive cases being out infectious in the community for six days before being tested and going into isolation.

The Delta strain is known to be far more transmissible among young people than earlier variants, and rising cases detected in school students is greatly troubling health officials.

Mr Miles said the initial lockdown had been "insufficient" for the growing Delta outbreak. The snap three-day lockdown – which has forced the cancellation of the Royal Queensland Show Ekka – had been scheduled to end tomorrow, but will now last eight days, until 4pm on August 8.

Eleven LGAs are affected, including City of Brisbane, Moreton Bay Regional Council, City of Gold Coast, City of Ipswich, Lockyer Valley Regional Council, Logan City, Noosa Shire Council, Redland City, Scenic Rim Regional Council, Somerset Regional Council and Sunshine Coast Regional Council.

Home learning will be in place from Tuesday for the entire week for the impacted LGAs state schools, Mr Miles said.

Private schools will also have similar arrangements.

Mr Miles said there was too much movement in the 11 LGAs.

"There's too many cars on the road in Brisbane at the moment," he said.

"Too many people out and about."

More than 21,800 Queenslanders were tested yesterday – an increase of more than 10,000 on the previous day.

'Missing link' after two June 29 flights

Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young said her team still had no idea how the Delta virus had moved from two returned travellers on June 29 into the state's south-east, and a cluster now totalling 31.

"I don't know where the missing link is," Dr Young said.

"All I know is that we had two people arrive from overseas into the Brisbane International Airport on June 29, and … now this outbreak, 29 additional people later, are all clustering with those two."

Dr Young said the outbreak was "escalating".

Four of today's new cases are from one family, she said

"Don't leave home. We know that the Delta virus, the variant of the virus, is totally unforgiving. It really and truly spreads so rapidly."

Health Minister Yvette D'Ath said people should work from home if they can.

Commercial construction and critical residential work is allowed to continue.

$260m boost for Queensland businesses

In response to the longer lockdown, Treasurer Cameron Dick said a $260 million package had been launched to support struggling Queensland businesses, particularly small and medium sized enterprises.

Grants of $5000 grants are available to all Queensland businesses – not just those in the locked down area.

"That recognises the impact that the Delta variant has had on those businesses," Mr Dick said, "because … it stopped tourists coming from other parts of the country who are also in lockdown."

READ MORE: McDonald's and Bunnings among latest Queensland exposure sites

'Magnificent opportunity'

Former Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Nick Coatsworth said the situation offered a "magnificent opportunity" to ramp up vaccination efforts.

"There will be that anxiety (from Queenslanders) watching what's happened in Sydney," he told Today.

"But … there is national agreement that short, sharp lockdowns are necessary whilst our vaccination rates are increasing.

"This is the best chance that Queenslanders have to get the virus under control."

He urged Queenslanders to "get out there" and have a Pfizer or AstraZeneca jab as soon as possible.

Dr Coatsworth said he had "every confidence" Australia could hit a 70 per cent fully vaccinated rate by the end of the year.

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Massive testing queues

9News reporter Reece D'Alessandro said queues at the Toowong Drive testing centre in Brisbane were "massive" this morning.

At 8am (AEST) there were at least 80 vehicles in line. Making matters worse, a car had broken down at the front of the queue.

D'Alessandro said some people in the line today had tried unsuccessfully to get a test yesterday.

"They are back here this morning and they are getting frustrated."

'A really irresponsible thing to do'

Queensland Police Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski has warned anti-lockdown protesters to they will be caught if they attend possible planned rallies across Brisbane today.

Police are cracking down on those breaking the rules with people being told to stay at home amid a rising number of cases.

"We had intelligence people are considering protests," Mr Gollschewski told Today.

"Can I just say – we have said this consistently – now is not the time. This is a really irresponsible thing to do.

"Protesters should put the safety interests of their community ahead of their own views for now.

"They should expect police to be there if they do go ahead."

He confirmed 57 infringement notices had been issued since the lockdown began, 29 for being outside of their homes without a valid reason.

Another 11 were issued for illegal gatherings while six people have been arrested.