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Sydney's coronavirus outbreak has turned from crisis to a national emergency and shows no sign of improving despite four weeks of lockdown.

Of the 136 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, 53 were infectious in the community, sparking fears of another significant spike today.

The situation worsened overnight when NSW Health confirmed 130 staff and patients at the Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital had been forced into isolation after two student nurses tested positive to COVID-19.

READ MORE: 'Great concern' as COVID-19 traces found in sewage in new region

The two cases are not linked and contact tracers are frantically trying to determine how many more people the virus could have spread to.

"Twenty-five staff were identified as close contacts of the first student nurse and have been isolating. There were no patients identified as contacts," the South Western Sydney Local Health District spokesperson told 9News.

"Extensive contact tracing of the second case continues. Five patients and more than 100 staff have been identified as potential contacts and are isolating."

There has been "no impact on the hospital's services or the delivery of care", they said.

Restrictions tighten

Restrictions have been tightened further in several local government areas in south-west Sydney while authorities fight to control the spiralling outbreak across the city, which has also claimed another life.

"There is no doubt that the numbers are not going in the direction we were hoping they would at this stage," Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.

The so-called ring of steel around the Fairfield, Canterbury Bankstown, and Liverpool LGAs was expanded to include Cumberland and Blacktown.

READ MORE: Pfizer vaccine approved for children as young as 12

More than a quarter of Sydney residents are now effectively trapped at home, with only essential workers allowed to leave the area.

"What we are not seeing is the turnaround that we would have liked to see at this stage," Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said.

After National Cabinet on Friday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said NSW would not be getting any extra supply of the Pfizer vaccine to curb its outbreak, but second doses may be delayed so more people can get their first jab.

The lockdown in Sydney was working, Mr Morrison said.

He said the restrictions had prevented coronavirus infections growing exponentially, as it has in other countries.

"In Victoria, when they went through the lockdown, they saw cases rise and rise and rise for many, many weeks while they were in lockdown," Mr Morrison said.

"I would reassure people that what you are doing now is saving lives, it is working to bring this under control."

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More than 100 staff and patients at a Sydney hospital have been sent into isolation after two student nurses tested positive to COVID-19.

NSW health authorities confirmed on Friday night that 130 staff and patients from Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital had been impacted.

The two cases are not linked, a South Western Sydney Local Health District spokesperson told 9News.

"Twenty-five staff were identified as close contacts of the first student nurse and have been isolating. There were no patients identified as contacts," the spokesperson said.

"Extensive contact tracing of the second case continues. Five patients and more than 100 staff have been identified as potential contacts and are isolating."

The spokesperson adds that "extensive cleaning of the clinical areas in which the staff members worked" has been conducted and says there has been "no impact on the hospital's services or the delivery of care".

It comes after New South Wales recorded 136 local COVID-19 cases on Friday, 53 of which were infectious in the community, as the premier says the evolving situation could be regarded a "national emergency".

Restrictions have been tightened further in several local government areas in south-west Sydney while authorities fight to control the spiralling outbreak across the city, which has claimed another life.

"There is no doubt that the numbers are not going in the direction we were hoping they would at this stage," Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.

Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant confirmed an 89-year-old man had died overnight, but said further information would not be released until the family had been notified.

There were a record 86,620 tests conducted in New South Wales overnight – a number rapidly approaching capacity.

"We have to acknowledge that our testing resources are finite," Dr Chant said.

"We are starting to max out at that."

New testing technologies were being explored, she said.

New restrictions for two LGAs

Further restrictions will be imposed in the Cumberland and Blacktown local government areas.

In line with the restrictions on Fairfield, Liverpool and Canterbury-Bankstown, workers in Cumberland and Blacktown will no longer be allowed to leave those communities unless they are health and emergency workers.

Fairfield is still generating the largest number of cases, Dr Chant said.

Vaccine strategy 'must be refocused'

NSW will appeal to the Federal Government to refocus the national vaccination strategy on south-western Sydney.

"What I am recommending strongly is that our vaccination efforts are refocused on those affected LGAs," Dr Chant said.

"Every day people from those LGAs have to go out to work to keep our city going.

"They are doing critical food production, critical work, to keep society functioning, and we are seeing cases of the virus introduced into various workplaces.

"We are also seeing a significant household transmission, and it has been very challenging to interrupt those transmission chains.

"Two areas that I have requested that we urgently focus on, is redirecting all of vaccine initiatives to south-western Sydney, and Western Sydney, particularly the affected local government areas, that we work in partnership with the Commonwealth to deliver both Pfizer and AstraZeneca, consider the use of the Pfizer in the younger working population, in order to prevent the spread.

"The individual benefits of vaccination are so clear, both vaccines are very effective at preventing against severe illness and hospitalisation."

READ MORE: Latest coronavirus exposure sites for Sydney

READ MORE: Brisbane flight attendant 'tests positive' to COVID-19

'We need to vaccinate younger people'

Dr Chant said young people in south-west Sydney were the driving force keeping Sydney going and getting them doses of the Pfizer vaccine must be a priority.

"These workplaces are not the hairdressers or the discretionary premises, they are premises that actually put food on the table for people in Sydney," she said.

"They are the people that keep our supermarkets in stock, working in food processing and other settings.

"Because of that, my view is that we need to get vaccines into younger people in south-western Sydney and as the Premier indicated, south-western Sydney and parts of Western Sydney have some of the lower levels of vaccination coverage which poses another challenge, and so we need to redouble our efforts in supporting that community to have access to vaccinations.

"We need to vaccinate younger people, between that 20- and 40-year-old age group."

'Oceans of AstraZeneca'

Ms Berejiklian said she wanted to see clear messaging around the nation about the AstraZeneca vaccine, adding she had received it herself when the health advice recommended it for under-60s.

"I'm 50 and I had it and I'm appealing to everyone that Dr Chant is, for me, the most respected medical person in Australia in public health, if she is saying it's OK for over-40s to have AstraZeneca, please take the advice," Ms Berejiklian said.

"The risk of any adverse condition from the jab is minuscule compared to the serious illness you can get if you get the COVID virus and you don't have any dose of the vaccine."

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard reiterated the message, saying the state had "oceans of AstraZeneca" available and people should consider vaccination as an "obligation to yourself, the community, New South Wales and indeed Australia, because this could leak further into other states."

READ MORE: Pfizer vaccine approved for children as young as 12

NSW 'on the precipice'

Earlier this morning, infectious disease expert, Professor Robert Booy, said the state "is on the precipice" of losing control of the current outbreak if local infections keep growing.

"It's so close. It is still possible to get control over the next week or so," Professor Booy told Today.

"With so many in the community infectious, different chains of transmission, unrecognised chains of transmission, it's a real challenge."

Professor Booy said while numbers this week have grown, the coming days would indicate if the harder lockdown has had any real effect.

"If there really is an improvement over the weekend, that's great. If not, there will be harder lockdowns, more shops that won't be able to open, more travel that won't be allowed. We will have an even stronger lockdown than we currently have," he said.

Professor Booy said there was data suggesting the Delta variant could have gotten out of control prior to the current NSW outbreak and an earlier lockdown could have made a difference.

"(If we) possibly started three to four days earlier in NSW. I myself didn't recommend it, so they're at fault, I'm at fault, many others are at fault. We could have done better," he said.

READ MORE: Can you get a COVID-19 vaccination yet? State by state guide

It comes as Queensland has again closed the border with NSW in a bid to keep the Delta strain out of the northern state.

Hundreds of police are now manning checkpoints along the border after traces of coronavirus were found in Byron Bay's sewage systems.

The traces were found in a treatment plant that services about 19,000 people in Byron Bay, Wategos, Suffolk Park, Sunrise, and Broken Head, raising new fears the COVID-19 cluster may have spread outside of Sydney again.

"There are no known cases in this area, which is of great concern," the department said in its latest public health alert overnight.

Authorities have asked everyone in the Byron Bay region to be on high alert for any symptoms, "and if they appear, to immediately come forward for testing and isolate until a negative result is received".

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Prime Minister Scott Morrison has rejected Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews' call to enforce a "ring of steel" around Sydney.

Mr Andrews today called for the city to be encased in a ring of steel as the Delta coronavirus outbreak continues to surge.

The premier said there was a "national responsibility" to contain the out-of-control Sydney coronavirus outbreak otherwise the "whole country will end up in lockdown".

LIVE UPDATES: Sydney situation a 'national emergency'

"Sydney is on fire with this virus and we need a ring of steel around Sydney," Mr Andrews said.

"There is a national responsibility to do everything possible to contain it where it is now. Not to see it spread."

Mr Andrews raised the issue at today's National Cabinet meeting of premiers and the prime minister.

But Mr Morrison today rebuffed the views of the premier, insisting it was up to NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian to manage lockdown measures.

"The only view that matters on this is the view of the New South Wales Premier because they are responsible for how they manage the lockdown in New South Wales," he said.

"There is nothing light about the lockdown in Sydney, I can assure you. My family are in it.

"I'm quite certain that people living in Greater Sydney do not feel they are under loose restrictions."

Currently Victoria, South Australia and the regional NSW town of Orange are also under stay-at-home orders.

During Melbourne's lockdowns last year, police were stationed around the edge of the city stopping people from travelling to regional areas without a valid reason.

However, Sydney's current restrictions do already mean people are not allowed to leave home except for a small list of reasons, with extra rules for more areas of the city's west and south west announced today.

In line with the restrictions on Fairfield, Liverpool and Canterbury-Bankstown, workers in Cumberland and Blacktown will no longer be allowed to leave those communities unless they are health and emergency workers.

READ MORE: Restrictions tightened across south-west Sydney

Mr Andrews today implored for stricter measures after NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant described the situation in the state as a "national emergency".

The Victorian Premier said NSW seemed to have "crossed a threshold" with a surge in COVID-19 cases.

"How many more states do we want locked down?" he said.

"We did it last year to protect country Victoria and our country, and the same must occur in relation to Sydney.

"There is a national responsibility to put a ring of steel around Sydney."

Police, authorised officers and ADF personnel could help man the proposed border to protect the virus from seeping into other states, Mr Andrews suggested.

New South Wales recorded 136 local COVID-19 cases today, 53 of which were infectious in the community.

A Sydney man who kicked a teenage girl unconscious has narrowly avoided jail.

William Shepley was one of three friends involved in a sickening brawl with high school students at Pirrama Park in Pyrmont on the night of Mardi Gras in March.

Video posted to social media shows the 15- and 16-year old girls being punched, kicked, dragged and thrown off a concrete ledge.

Three of the victims suffered serious injuries, including concussion.

At the time, NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller told 9News he'd never seen "such disgraceful footage".

Shepley today pleaded guilty to charges of affray and common assault.

The prosecutor described the fight as disturbing and fuelled by alcohol.

The court heard the 23-year-old kicked a girl until she blacked out, yet when he went to prison for 17 days, he was petrified he'd be the victim of a revenge attack.

Shepley's barrister Michael Coroneos argued his client should not be sent back to jail because he has a clean record and suffers from depression and PTSD.

He'd also voluntarily undergone programs to improve his life choices and had shown remorse towards the school-aged victims.

Shepley avoided a custodial sentence but was instead fined $1400 and will have to be of good behaviour for the next two years.

His co-accused Jesse Mackenzie is serving 20 months behind bars while the third man involved, Hong Lee, also avoided being locked up after being convicted.

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A man has spoken out about testing positive to COVID-19 after attending a rugby match now believed to be a super-spreader event at Melbourne's AAMI Park.

Zac, 21, spoke exclusively to 9News as he fights coronavirus in hotel quarantine at the Holiday Inn after he tested positive despite two initial negative results.

The software engineer from Hawthorn attended the Wallabies vs France test match on July 13 with his godfather Pete, which later became a Tier One exposure site for certain areas.

READ MORE: Victorian premier calls for Sydney 'ring of steel'

"The first one or two days of when I was symptomatic, I wasn't feeling too crash hot," Zac told 9News.

The pair have been forced into 14 days of quarantine after being exposed to the virus and believe they may have sat within two rows of the positive case at the stadium.

"We were pretty shocked to discover a few days later that we were in a Tier One exposure point and then immediately went into 14 days of kind of lockdown into our houses," Pete said.

While the pair sat together at the match, they arrived separately, lining up outside as busy crowds streamed inside.

Gate entry has previously been flagged by the state's chief health officer as a site of potential transmission in some cases.

"I actually recall going through the entry gate thinking this is pretty chockablock, you know," Zac said.

"Lot of shoulder-to-shoulder, very long queues.

"It struck me as just how potentially disastrous that queue could have been."

READ MORE Victoria records 14 new COVID-19 cases

READ MORE: Exposure sites grow across Victoria

There are now 10 cases linked to the AAMI Park cluster, including four new infections today, made up of one attendee in quarantine, one household contact in quarantine and two household members of the cases who visited Prahran market.

Pete – aged in his 40s and fully vaccinated with Pfizer – has so far tested negative.

"It's pretty incredible that Zac, who is obviously a lot younger and not eligible to have the vaccine, that we have come out with very different outcomes," Pete said.

There are thousands of close contacts from AAMI Park who will start their day 13 tests over the weekend.

Tests must come back negative for those people to be released from quarantine.

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