After announcing 65 new cases on Thursday, the district recorded 37 new cases on Christmas Eve. That reporting period is to 8pm on December 23.

However, Mr Spittal has revealed there's been a substantial number of new cases identified after 8pm on Thursday, and health officials are bracing for a correction of those figures on Saturday.

He said the bulk of those cases are in Dubbo, which explains the sudden drop from 28 cases the day before to just one in the latest reporting period.

He said the delay in figures stems from the overwhelming number of tests being conducted in the region. On Friday, the gates to the Dubbo Showground were closed after a flood of cars formed a monster queue to get tested.

"With a significant increase in demand for COVID-19 testing recently it has taken slightly longer than usual to process results which, in this case, has resulted in the case numbers reported today being artificially low," Mr Spittal said.

He said the rise in case numbers on Christmas Day is no reason to panic, but should serve as a timely reminder.

"We do need to be aware of the heightened risk of COVID-19 transmission in our district right now, and take sensible precautions," he said.

Three-quarters of the confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Western NSW LHD are people under 39. One third of those cases are in the 20-39 age demographic.

"If you do plan to go out tonight to celebrate Christmas Eve, or at all across the holiday period, consider the risk to yourself and to others and take sensible precautions to keep yourself safe. The happiest Christmas for all of us will be a safe Christmas," headded.

Of the 37 new cases in the reporting latest reporting period, five of those are in Orange, four in Cabonne while Blayney picked up a case as well.

The Mid-Western LGA recorded the most across the west, with seven new cases, while Bathurst (four), Warrumbungle (three), Parkes (three), Nyngan (two), Oberon (two) and Bourke

Meanwhile, Australians will have their wait for a COVID-19 vaccine booster slashed as authorities scramble to slow the spread of the Omicron variant.

The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation has recommended Australians receive a third dose four months after their second from January 4. That will be slashed to just three months from January 31.

Making the announcement on Friday morning, Health Minister Greg Hunt described the decision as "no surprise" given the highly-infectious new strain was spreading rapidly across Australia.

"These dates have been set out of an abundance of caution to give Australians early, continued protection," he said.

"The advice we have is that the protection as it is is very strong against severe illness, but what we'll see is a much stronger protection against transmission."

The state and territories will be able to bring the timeframes forward if they have the capacity to do so, without undermining access for immunocompromised and elderly Australians.

A two-dose course has proven significantly less effective against Omicron than previous strains.

But Chief medical officer Paul Kelly said were "not enough" by themselves, with restrictions reintroduced by the states also contributing to the fight.

"With the booster, [protection] goes back towards the same levels as [against] Delta. It will be an important, and is already becoming an important, part of our control of the current Omicron wave in Australia," he said.

The decision will make an additional 4.3 million people eligible for a booster on January 4, with a total of 16 million eligible by the end of that month.

But with pharmacies reporting they were already struggling to fill demand, Mr Hunt said there were 20 million doses in Australia.

The Health Minister insisted, while currently supply could eventually administer five doses to eligible Australians, the revised timetable would focus on the most vulnerable.

"A very important principle ... [is] focusing on the priority populations. The further someone has been from their second dose, the more important it is that they're vaccinated by acting at four months," he said.

"Then progressively at three months, we're giving the highest priority to those who have the greatest distance in time from having been vaccinated."

Mr Hunt expected Australia to pass two million boosters on Friday morning, with another 148,000 administered on Thursday.

"Australians are exceeding expectations, and that's just a great tribute to our health workers, our medical workers, but above all else, to all of those Australians who come forward through all of the different channels," he said.

Data suggested Omicron was significantly less severe than previous variants, though its hyper-transmissibility still posed a threat to Australia's health systems.

Professor Kelly said hospitalisation rates had not escalated as quickly as case numbers so far, though there had been a slight rise in NSW over recent days.

"Almost all of those have been unvaccinated, not even a first dose, let alone a booster," he said.

It comes weeks after Omicron prompted the UK to slash wait times from six to three months.

A host of state premiers have been calling for Australia to follow suit, as Omicron drove massive spikes in daily case numbers.

But after Anthony Albanese joined the chorus on Thursday, Mr Hunt accused the Labor leader of undermining an independent ATAGI process.

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