A man and woman - aged in their 70s and 90s - from the Maitland local government area were among the 27 people with COVID-19 to die across NSW in the 24 hours to 8pm on Sunday.
The Hunter New England Health District recorded 1193 fresh positive COVID-19 results for the period - 728 of those from rapid antigen tests and 465 from PCR tests.
The number of people in the district's hospitals increased slightly to 73 - up from 70 a day earlier - and the number of patients in ICU remained stable at seven.
It came as NSW has recorded 13,026 new COVID-19 cases and 27 deaths for the period.
Of the new cases, 5664 came from RATs and 7362 came from PCR tests.
There are 2779 people with COVID-19 in hospitals across the state - 185 of those in intensive care.
The 27 deaths represented a sharp drop from the record daily death tolls of 52 and 49 the previous two days.
