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NSW records significant drop in COVID-19 cases

New South Wales has recorded yet another day of decreasing COVID-19 cases, reporting 20,148 new infections.

The state reported that 30 people have died with the virus.

There are 2762 people in hospital with the virus, a slight increase from yesterday's admissions, while there are 204 people in intensive care.

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Premier Dominic Perrottet repeated today the state is "tracking below" in ICU presentations in comparison to predictions made in modelling.

He said many of the people in ICU are unvaccinated, and called for NSW residents to get vaccinated.

"Close to 50 per cent of people in ICU are unvaccinated," he said.

"The facts and evidence speak for itself."

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet

Meanwhile, some NSW doctors are cutting the interval between vaccine doses for children as concerns grow about returning to school.

The interval between the first and second dose of the vaccine for five to 11-year-olds is eight weeks.

However, some doctors are reportedly cutting the interval down to just three weeks to try and have children fully vaccinated by the beginning of term one.

Otherwise some children who received their first vaccine dose this week will wait until mid-March to be fully vaccinated, which is almost the Easter holidays.

Parents and children line up for vaccines in Granville in Sydney's west.

Doctors said cutting the interval down is important for immunocompromised children.

"Any child who might be immunocompromised or who has another chronic illness such as asthma, who you might think is higher risk, that's the population we want to protect," Charlotte Hespe, a doctor, said.

"They're the ones we want to target."

Around 22 per cent of children aged between five and 11 have received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Supply of the vaccine is also preventing the roll-out from speeding up, some doctors have said.

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NSW recorded its deadliest day of the COVID-19 pandemic yesterday with 46 deaths.

The state reported 25,168 new infections yesterday.

There are 2743 people being treated with the virus in hospitals across NSW.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said yesterday NSW is "tracking better than our best case scenario" in terms of hospitalisations and the number of people in ICU.

"In respect of our intensive-care capacity, we currently have 209 people with COVID in our intensive-care units," he said.

"That is once again tracking better than our best case scenario from the modelling that we released two weeks ago … that was at a height where we were expecting 270 on our best case scenario and 600 on our worst-case scenario."

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Australia scraps PCR testing requirement for overseas arrivals

People coming to Australia from overseas will no longer be required to produce a negative PCR test result to enter the country, and can instead do so with a negative RAT test within 24 hours of departure.

The Federal Government announced the new rules on Friday evening, saying they will come into effect at 1am on Sunday, January 23.

In a statement, Health Minister Greg Hunt and Home Affairs counterpart Karen Andrews said the changed requirements would allow greater flexibility for travellers.

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"While PCR tests remain the gold standard test, a RAT within 24 hours is an acceptable indicator of whether a traveller has COVID-19 before flying to Australia," the statement read.

"This is consistent with moves within Australia to accept RATs for diagnostic purposes."

For those who test positive to COVID-19 overseas, the required time to wait before travelling has been halved.

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Rather than wait two weeks from their positive test result, travellers to Australia must now wait seven days pre-departure.

"This will reduce wait times for travellers who contract COVID-19 overseas to return to Australia in line with the new domestic isolation requirements," the statement read.

"The pre-departure testing requirements will continue to be reviewed regularly, taking into account the domestic and international epidemiology."

Travellers to Australia must continue to wear a mask in airports and on aircraft, and obey each state's regulations for testing and isolation.

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