A second person has died at a Sydney high-care nursing home where a quarter of all residents and 13 staff have been infected with the coronavirus.
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Anglicare confirmed a 94-year-old man with COVID-19 died at its Newmarch House in Caddens on Sunday morning. It follows the death of a 93-year-old man on Saturday.
"Although the cause of death has not been determined, this is tragically our second resident who has died in recent days, who had received a positive diagnosis of COVID-19," a spokesman said in a statement on Sunday.
The facility said it is working with state and federal health authorities to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
The state's COVID-19 death toll now sits at 30.
The high-care facility, home to about 100, had 27 residents and 14 staff infected as of midday on Sunday.
NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said there was an "extensive intervention in place" but the most recently reported cases were likely infected many days ago.
"There's nothing we can do around preventing those cases and I think this extensive testing has identified the cases early," she said on Sunday.
"Now we need to stop the spread."
A worker with very mild or no symptoms entered the facility six days in a row, leading Dr Chant to warn even those with minimal symptoms to avoid work and get tested.
Meanwhile, nine more crew members of the Ruby Princess cruise ship have tested positive to COVID-19 in the past day, taking the total number of crew infected to 171.
Dr Chant said there had been no new symptomatic cases on the ship but hinted the rise in numbers could be due to the highly sensitive tests identifying "dead virus" in crew members' bodies.
The ship remains docked at Port Kembla, where it's likely to stay for the foreseeable future.
NSW Health on Sunday confirmed 21 new virus cases statewide, taking the total number of confirmed cases to 2957.
Health Minister Brad Hazzard thanked the community for its "amazing" response to strict coronavirus restrictions as modelling done in early March came to light.
The projection examining the effect of tougher measures forecast 700 deaths and 35,000 cases would be recorded by April 15 if nothing was done.
"That's probably conservative," Mr Hazzard said.
"We're doing very well but let's not get too excited. We're barely halfway through the first quarter of the very long game."
Mr Hazzard on Sunday extended the $5000 on-the-spot fine for spitting and coughing on NSW health workers to include all workers.
The retail workers' union said its members had borne the brunt of a huge upsurge in customer abuse during the pandemic and said it had become "disturbingly common".
"These are our neighbours stocking our shelves and manning our cash registers," Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees' Association NSW/ACT secretary Bernie Smith said in a statement on Sunday
"Sometimes we've all just got to step back and remember that we're all in this together."
Police continue to enforce self-isolation regulations, fining 45 people and charging seven across the state in the past 24 hours.
The Berejiklian government also announced on Sunday it was pumping $25 million into fast-tracking statewide coronavirus research and clinical trials and $14 million into its small business advisory program Business Connect.
Australian Associated Press
