At Thursday's press briefing, Deputy Commissioner Gary Worboys said: I think police and the people of the Central West have great community spirit.

"It's been demonstrated in the last 24 hours how they've received the stay at home orders. Overwhelmingly people are doing the right thing in those towns of Molong, Orange and Blayney.

"There is an emergency management response in place there with local people and local government to support people in what will be a challenging time for them.

"Overwhelmingly that area of the Central West has responded well and they need to make sure they take notice of the orders. I have no doubt if people follow the orders they will get through the next seven days fine."

The NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced there had been 124 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm on Wednesday, with "at least" 48 infectious in the community.

"I'm expecting case numbers to go up even higher," the Premier said. "It'll go up before it goes back down."

A new record 85,000 people were tested in NSW yesterday.

The Premier said there had been some "spillover" into other local government areas in Sydney.

It comes as regions, including the Hunter, brace for the virus to leak into their communities given the continued movement of workers in and out of Sydney.

Workplaces and households remained the biggest contributors to transmission.

"We can't stress enough how contagious this virus is," Ms Berejiklian said.

NSW Health's Dr Jeremy McAnulty said 67 of the new cases were linked to known cases and clusters.

There are 118 people in hospital, 28 in intensive care, with 14 requiring ventilation.

"This is a serious disease for all ages," he said.

There has been COVID outbreaks in two aged care facilities in Sydney, and another at a disability group home.

"The contact tracers are doing a fantastic job," Dr McAnulty said.

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