The NSW COVID situation has been declared a national emergency.

Ms Berejiklian said the state must contain the virus.

"We have an obligation on behalf of the nation to contain the virus," she said.

"..there is critical work that goes on between states - no matter how hard you have a state border lockdown, the virus still seeps through.

"No border is perfect there is always exceptions."

Ms Berejiklian said it was very difficult to contain the virus within any boundaries because there would always be exceptions.

She said 'in effect' NSW already had a state of emergency.

Dr Chant said transmissions were occurring in homes and essential workplaces.

"Because of that my view is we need to get vaccines into younger people in south western Sydney," she said.

Dr Chant said they were not seeing the turnaround or flattening of numbers they wanted to.

Watch Ms Berejiklian speak below.

PREVIOUSLY:

NSW has recorded 136 new locally-acquired cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm yesterday.

Of the new cases 53 were infectious while in the community for more than a day.

17 were in the community for part of their infectious period.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said nearly 87,000 people were tested.

She said testing records had been broken daily.

A crisis cabinet meeting this morning declared the NSW situation a 'national emergency'.

Ms Berejiklian said NSW has to take action and tightened restrictions within affected Sydney LGAs.

"From today the NSW government will call on the federal government to refocus our national vaccination strategy," she said.

Ms Berejiklian said the state needs more first dose Pfizer vaccines.

She said the government would be working on a roadmap for NSW of how best the state can live safely and freely.

The Premier said just because you might not live in the LGAs where the focus is, does not mean you cannot get the virus.

Ms Berejiklian said the strategy involves keeping the virus out of the region and keeping the regions going.

She said as more cases develop there will be more hospitalisations.

"We're going to see more of this as case numbers increase," she said

Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant an 89-year-old man died overnight.

Dr Chant said the vaccination efforts needed to be refocused on the LGAs where the COVID case are being found.

"We need to stay the course, and we need to do more," Dr Chant said.

She recommended anyone across NSW to book an appointment to get an AstraZeneca vaccine.

Health Minister Brad Hazzard said during a national emergency residents have a duty to do what they can to help.

He said in this case, that is get vaccinated.

Mr Hazzard said people over 60 have a one in 200 chance of dying if they get COVID.

"There is no argument, you should step forward and get the vaccine," he said.

Mr Hazzard implored everyone in the state to get vaccinated.

IN OTHER NEWS:

Across the border, Victoria recorded 14 new cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to midnight.

Ten of the new cases were in isolation for their entire infectious period.

Acting Chief Health Officer Ben Cowie said yesterday that it was too early to say whether Victoria's lockdown would end as planned, at 11.59pm on July 27.

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