The health district reported 261 new cases to 8pm on Thursday night, with hospitalisations across the region increasing with 30 now in services across the west. The Western NSWLHD does not specific which hospital those patients are in.

However, of the 261 new cases in our area, 143 of them are being reported in Orange. All of those positive results are from PCR tests, with the results from RATs across our area currently unavailable.

Bathurst's figures dipped to 12 while Dubbo recorded 22 new cases in the latest report. Both centres had well over 100 in the previous report.

Blayney had eight new cases while there were 14 reported in Cabonne - four of those are in Molong while five reside in Canowindra.

Across NSW it was another bleak day in the pandemic's history, with the state's death toll continuing to climb, setting another record as our deadliest day during the pandemic.

Twenty-nine people died in the 24 hours to 8pm on Thursday, NSW Health figures released on Friday morning.

There were 63,018 new positive tests recorded - 25,080 PCR results and 37,938 confirmed cases from rapid antigen tests.

Hospitalisations have continued to rise - 2525 up from 2383 the previous day as the number of patients in intensive care units increased by three to 185.

NSW Health said 24,329 of the 37,938 positive rapid antigen test results were from the past seven days.

The health authority noted in its update the numbers included some cases where the same person who received a positive RAT result on multiple days or were an individual who had a positive RAT and PCR result within the same reporting period.

The state's 29 fatalities mark a new record for the daily NSW death toll for the fifth time in less than a week.

Before last weekend, the record - 15 deaths in a day - was in October during the Delta outbreak.

Yesterday the state recorded 22 deaths, while 21 were recorded on Wednesday and 11 the day prior.

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