With the inclusion of this number, it brings the total number of Orange infections for December to 233 cases in the Local Government Area so far.

Of the city's case count of 27, three of these infections were connected to Cabonne Shire addresses, and are included in a total of 80 cases reported by Western NSW Local Health District across the region.

There are nine cases in the Mid-Western LGA, with five in Mudgee, three in Gulgong, and one infection in Rylestone.

The Warren LGA has eight cases, while the Cabonne Shire tallied an overall seven cases; three in Molong, two each in Cumnock and Manildra, and a single case in Cargo.

In the Bathurst area, there are six cases on report; two of these with Kelso addresses.

Over in the Narromine Shire there are five cases, with four of these connected to the Trangie area, while the Oberon LGA has four cases; one detected in O'Connell

Dubbo has recorded a significant fall in reported infections, dropping to just four cases in the latest report.

Brewarrina also has four cases, while the Blayney Shire reported two.

The remaining single cases are located in the LGA's of Forbes, Coonamble, Bourke, and Coolah's Warrumbungle Shire.

NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant alerted the state on Wednesday, and said that "there is probably more disease in the community than the numbers reflect" as testing facilities attempt to process the high-level of backlogged swab samples.

"When you have a higher positivity rate, it tells us two things: that we probably aren't ascertaining, you know, getting to all the cases, so there's probably more disease in the community than the numbers reflect," Dr Chant said.

Premier for NSW, Dominic Perrottet will seek nationwide uniformity on the definitions of 'close contact' and isolation period, joining his state and territory counterparts at an emergency national cabinet meeting that is being held on Thursday.

Another item expected to appear on the national cabinet meeting's agenda will be rapid antigen tests - and the pocket of which they'll be paid from - as states and territories band with NSW in recording higher-than-ever COVID figures.

A close contact - under a revised definition - would be considered as a person who has spent a minimum of four hour or more in a household (or household-like environment) with a positive COVID-19 case.

Statewide, NSW has recorded 12,226 new locally-acquired COVID-19 cases in the 24-hour reporting period to 8pm on Wednesday, December 29.

This figure has jumped by just over 1,000 additional cases from the day prior.

There are 746 people in hospital receiving treatment for the virus, which sees an additional 121 people hospitalised between the end-to-end reports.

There are 63 cases in ICU, a number up by two, with one COVID-related death on report.

The death toll of people having died from COVID-related reasons is now at 654 for NSW.

Vaccination figures remain the same from recent reports, with the first dose figure idling at 95 per cent, and 93.5 per cent of adults 16+ are fully vaccinated.

Figures for people aged 12-15 are at 81.5 per cent, and 78.1 per cent have received two doses of a COVID vaccine.

Testing figures have dropped by almost 60,000 from the previous day, with 97,201 swabs assessed in the last 24-hour period to 8pm.