A number of major changes have been announced for New South Wales and Greater Sydney as daily coronavirus cases remain high.

The new rules were announced by Premier Gladys Berejiklian and will come into force from 12.01 on Monday.

Here's a rundown of what is changing across the state.

LIVE UPDATES: NSW records 644 new cases, Premier urges state to 'bunker down'

Lockdown extended

Greater Sydney's lockdown will be in place until the end of September, at least.

The premier says Shellharbour and the Central Coast will be removed from the Greater Sydney definition to become rural areas.

The lockdown in rural and regional NSW is due to end on August 28 but that could be extended depending on case numbers.

A decision on that will come next week, the premier said.

READ MORE: Permit system for travel between regional NSW and Greater Sydney

New mask rules for all of NSW

Everyone across NSW must wear a mask outside of their homes, except for when exercising.

The rule comes into force at 12.01am on Monday August 23.

For those exercising, a mask must be carried at all times.

The rule will be in place for rural and regional NSW until August 28, at least.

READ MORE: Coronavirus spreads to regional Victoria

Curfew in place for hotspot LGAs

A curfew is being introduced across 12 local government areas in Greater Sydney where coronavirus cases are at their highest.

Those LGAs are Bayside, Blacktown, Burwood, Campbelltown, Canterbury-Bankstown, Cumberland, Fairfield, Georges River, Liverpool, Parramatta, Strathfield, and some suburbs of Penrith.

People will not be allowed to leave their homes between 9pm and 5am.

That curfew will come into place at 12.01am on Monday.

The curfew will not apply for authorised workers, emergencies or medical care.

READ MORE: Man charged with COVID-19 breaches after driving from Queensland to Sydney

Exercise limited to one hour

People living in hotspot areas – spread across Sydney's south-west and western suburbs – will be limited to exercising outdoors for just one hour per day.

Ms Berejiklian said this move was made as a small group of people were using exercise the wrong way in a bid to leave the home.

More retail venues to close

A number of additional retailers will move to click and collect only, from Monday.

They include garden centres and plant nurseries, office supplies, hardware and building supplies, landscaping material supplies, rural supplies, and pet supplies.

Tradespeople are allowed to shop in-store where relevant.

These rules will apply for residents and businesses in the LGAs of concern.

New rules for authorised workers and workplaces in hotspots

From Monday, workers from the Canterbury-Bankstown, Cumberland and Fairfield LGAs will no longer have to have been tested for COVID-19 19 in the previous 72 hours to work outside their LGA.

Childcare workers and disability support workers who live or work in the LGAs of concern must have their first vaccination dose by August 30.

Authorised workers who work outside their LGA of concern are only permitted to work if rapid antigen testing is implemented at their work-site or they have had their first vaccination dose by August 30.

From Saturday August 28, authorised workers from the LGAs of concern are required to carry a permit from Service NSW declaring that they are an authorised worker and cannot work from home.

Also from August 28, anyone entering an LGA of concern for the purposes of work must carry a worker permit issued by Service NSW.

Police given new 'special' powers

Police will be able to lock down apartment blocks while health assesses the COVID-19 risk.

A residential premise can be deemed a COVID-risk premise, with all people required to be present to police during compliance checks.

Police will be able to direct a person who has been issued with an infringement notice to return to their place of residence.

If a person from outside an LGA of concern is found to be in an LGA of concern without a reasonable excuse, they will be fined $1000 and required to isolate at home for 14 days.

Parents urged to keep children at home

Ms Berejiklian has pleaded with parents and carers to keep children at home and not take them to childcare centres and schools.

"We are also encouraging that unless you have to, please do not send your children to childcare or early childhood," said Ms Berejiklian.

It comes after a number of positive infections at schools and childcare centres,

More information on the new rules can be found here.

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New South Wales has recorded 644 new local coronavirus cases and four deaths, with at least 41 of the cases were infectious in the community.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the Greater Sydney lockdown will be extended until the end of September. A number of new restrictions will also come into effect on Monday.

Ms Berejiklian said these new restrictions are a "final list of what we can throw at this" current outbreak.

"I do not want to leave a shadow of a doubt," she said.

LIVE UPDATES: Victoria records case in regional area as ACT logs 12 new cases

New Restrictions in Sydney LGAs of concern from Monday:

• 9pm-5am curfew
• Exercise limited to one hour a day
• Further retail closures (hardware, nurseries, office supplies)
• All exams/education move online (except HSC)

New state-wide restrictions from Monday

• Lockdown for Greater Sydney extended until end of September
• Masks compulsory outdoors in all of NSW (except for exercise)

The Central Coast and Illawarra are still due to come out of lockdown on August 28.

There were 132,000 people vaccinated yesterday.

Yesterday's deaths include an unvaccinated woman in her 80s, a woman in her 80s who had one dose of vaccine, a man in his 80s who had one dose of vaccine and a man in his 70s who had one dose of vaccine.

READ MORE: Morrison says Australia has to 'live with COVID like we do with the flu'

Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said there are 470 cases in hospital, and 80 people in ICU.

Dr Chant said she "strongly supports" the new restrictions across Sydney and NSW.

"I understand that this is going to be so hard for everyone across New South Wales for the next four-to-six weeks," she said.

"But I do not want to be standing here every day, announcing these high rates of hospitalisations, and these deaths, every one of these deaths is someone mother, father, grandmother, grandfather."

Eleven people have tested positive after a gathering in Maroubra, she said.

"I understand why people are tired and fatigued but we just cannot have that occurring where we end up with a further escalation of cases associated with events that are not permitted at this time."

Further crackdown on movement in LGAs of concern

More restrictions will be introduced for the Sydney LGAs of concern later in August.

Childcare workers and disability support workers within those areas must have had one dose of vaccine by Monday August 30.

Authorised workers who work outside of their LGA will only be permitted to work if rapid antigen testing is implemented at their work-site or they have had one dose of vaccine by August 30.

Permits will also apply for authorised workers and anyone entering an LGA of concern for work from Saturday August 28.

NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said police would have new enforcement powers.

"If someone enters an LGA of concern without excuse, not only will they be fined, they will be sent home and they will have to self isolate for 14 days," he said.

"We also have power to declare a residential apartment a risk and we can lock that apartment down until New South Wales Health has conducted the appropriate tests.

"Permit systems will come in later next week for any authorised workers leaving the LGA's of concern.

"You must have a permit and additionally anyone entering the LGA's of concern for a reason of work must carry a permit."

Delta spread continues in regions

Western New South Wales recorded 27 new cases including 21 in Dubbo.

Three cases were recorded in Hunter New England, three in the Far West, three on the Central Coast, two in Southern NSW and one on the Mid North Coast.

There have been sewage detections in Cobar, Port Macquarie, Parkes, Coonamble and Bellambi.

READ MORE: Australia COVID-19 vaccination rollout tracker

"Our focus and a message to the people of the Central West, especially Dubbo, is to get tested if you have got symptoms to stay home, wait for the result, we need to get on top of that," Deputy Premier John Barilaro said.

"We saw how this escalated in Sydney, which allowed escalations in places like Victoria and the ACT.

"The message for regional and rural New South Wales is to continue to get tested, and more importantly get vaccinated.

"We do not want to fall behind of the vaccination rates, we have had record days of vaccinations here in Sydney and across the state, but we do not want to fall behind in regional or regional New South Wales."

READ MORE: The R-Factor is the crucial figure keeping NSW in lockdown

New permit system for travel to regional NSW

Anyone travelling from Greater Sydney to regional New South Wales must have a permit or they will face fines of up to $5000.

The permit system will kick in from midnight tonight in an attempt to control further spread of Sydney's Delta outbreak into the regions.

You will need a permit if you live in Greater Sydney and need to travel further than 50 kilometres for work.

If you're from Sydney's local government areas of concern, you will also need to have a COVID-19 test within the last week.

People travelling to a second home will also need a pass and will only be allowed to go if it's for work, or to do urgent repairs. Only one person from a family can go at a time.

You can read further details on the new system here.

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More than three centuries after a Massachusetts woman was wrongly convicted of witchcraft and sentenced to death, she's finally on the verge of being exonerated — thanks to a curious eighth-grade civics class.

State Senator Diana DiZoglio, a Democrat from Methuen, has introduced legislation to clear the name of Elizabeth Johnson Jr, who was condemned in 1693 at the height of the Salem Witch Trials but never executed.

Sen DiZoglio says she was inspired by sleuthing done by a group of 13- and 14-year-olds at North Andover Middle School.

READ MORE: The strange life of 'Witch of Wall Street' Hetty Green

Civics teacher Carrie LaPierre's students painstakingly researched Johnson and the steps that would need to be taken to make sure she was formally pardoned.

“It is important that we work to correct history,” Sen DiZoglio said on Wednesday.

“We will never be able to change what happened to these victims, but at the very least, we can set the record straight.”

If lawmakers approve the measure, Johnson will be the last accused witch to be cleared, according to Witches of Massachusetts Bay, a group devoted to the history and lore of the 17th-century witch hunts.

Twenty people from Salem and neighbouring towns were killed and hundreds of others accused during a frenzy of Puritan injustice that began in 1692, stoked by superstition, fear of disease and strangers, scapegoating and petty jealousies.

Nineteen were hanged, and one man was crushed to death by rocks.

In the 328 years that have ensued, dozens of suspects officially were cleared, including Johnson's own mother, the daughter of a minister whose conviction eventually was reversed.

But for some reason, Johnson's name wasn't included in various legislative attempts to set the record straight.

Johnson was 22 when she was caught up in the hysteria of the witch trials and sentenced to hang.

It never happened: Then-Governor William Phips threw out her punishment as the magnitude of the gross miscarriages of justice in Salem sank in.

But because she wasn't among those whose convictions were formally set aside, hers still technically stands.

“It showed how superstitious people still were after the witch trials,” said Artem Likhanov, 14, a rising high school freshman who participated in the school project.

“It’s not like after it ended people didn’t believe in witches anymore. They still thought she was a witch and they wouldn’t exonerate her.”

Sen DiZoglio's bill would tweak 1957 legislation, amended in 2001, to include Johnson among others who were pardoned after being wrongly accused and convicted of witchcraft.

“Why Elizabeth was not exonerated is unclear but no action was ever taken on her behalf by the General Assembly or the courts,” Sen DiZoglio said.

“Possibly because she was neither a wife nor a mother, she was not considered worthy of having her name cleared. And because she never had children, there is no group of descendants acting on her behalf.”

In 2017, officials unveiled a semi-circular stone wall memorial inscribed with the names of people hanged at a site in Salem known as Proctor’s Ledge.

It was funded in part by donations from descendants of those accused of being witches.

Ms LaPierre, the teacher, said some of her students initially were ambivalent about the effort to exonerate Johnson because they launched it before the 2020 presidential election and at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic was raging.

“Some of the conversation was, ‘Why are we doing this? She’s dead. Isn’t there more important stuff going on in the world?'” she said.

“But they came around to the idea that it's important that in some small way we could do this one thing.”

A taste of summer is heading for NSW, with temperatures set to push close to 30C in Sydney early next week.

After a warm and mostly sunny weekend when temperatures set to hit 24C, Sydney – which remains under coronavirus lockdown- is expected to be a sunny 27C on Monday.

Western Sydney is forecast to be 28C that day.

READ MORE: Sydney landmark restaurant Golden Century goes into administration

However it won't be as hot on much of the rest of the south and east of the nation.

The ACT is in for a week which will see morning frost expected some days, amid lows of -2C.

Melbourne, Adelaide and Hobart will see a week of showers.

Perth will see showers to start the weekend but it'll clear into the week with the warmest day to be 25C on Wednesday.

Darwin will remain typically hot, with highs of 33C.

Weather today

Today Sydney will reach 23C, and Brisbane 25C. Darwin will reach 34C.

Showers will ease in Perth where it will be a cooler 19C.

Melbourne will be a cooler 16C with showers, alongside Canberra which will reach 17C

Adelaide will hit 17C and Hobart 16C.