Sydneysiders have been warned breaking pandemic rules could risk keeping the New South Wales capital locked down for longer.
The warning came as the number of new COVID-19 cases detected in the state halved from Saturday to Sunday, a figure, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian warned couldn't be interpreted as a trend.
Dozens were fined over the weekend for lockdown breaches, including a trio caught camping in the Central Tablelands and 13 people who attended a party at NRL player Paul Vaughan's house, risking bringing the competition to a halt.
READ MORE: 'Very encouraging': NSW cases dip
The Premier, speaking before the party at the St George Illawarra Dragons player's house was revealed, said rule-breaking could put the scheduled end of lockdown orders on Friday at risk.
"If 100 per cent of people did everything we asked them to do, then we would have a situation where we could see us coming out of the lockdown in a timely way," she said.
"So the next few days are absolutely critical."
Health authorities welcomed the dramatic drop from 35 cases — the most recorded in a day this year — on Saturday to 16 on Sunday but warned it didn't show a trend and that a number of factors would be taken into account, not just case numbers.
"The sort of things we're interested in is whether people have been in isolation for the full infectious period and therefore posing no risk of onward transmission," she said.
READ MORE: Hundreds soak up Sydney sun despite lockdown
"Whether we are getting those unlinked cases and whether we are concerned about the settings those unlinked cases are occurring in.
"And whether there's any other contextual factors; that testing rates are low, whether there's any intelligence coming from our sewerage surveillance, which indicates cases in areas where we haven't recognised cases."
Only three of Sunday's cases were in the community while infectious and one of the three was isolated for part of their infectious period, Ms Berejiklian confirmed.
The results come from over 45,000 tests conducted on Saturday.
Ms Berejiklian again urged everyone to maintain their social distance when enjoying the outdoors, after large crowds flocked to enjoy the sunshine on Saturday, fuelling concern around ongoing community transmission.
She called on residents to continue to adhere to lockdown restrictions, including refraining from visiting other households and maintaining social distancing when exercising outdoors.
"What we are seeing is that the transmission is now occurring in households, or within households," she said.
"And whilst the numbers overnight are very encouraging compared to the previous day, we know that they still have a potential to bounce around."
Concerns remain about the SummitCare facility in Baulkham Hills, where three elderly residents and two workers tested positive to the coronavirus over the past few days.
All three infected residents — and 96 per cent of all residents — had been vaccinated but only two-thirds of staff had received both jabs. As much as 75 per cent of workers were forced into quarantine.
Deputy Chief Health Officer Michael Kidd said the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC), met again yesterday to discuss the responses to the latest virus outbreak, particularly in NSW and the rest of the country.
"Looking at the outbreak at Summit Care, we are taking that very seriously, as we do with each outbreak in residential aged care facilities," Prof Kidd said.
"The Commonwealth is working in partnership with New South Wales and the facility staff. The facility is in full lockdown and additional work force supports have been activated and testing of residents and staff has also been activated."
Speaking at a press conference this morning, Summit Care's Chief Operating Officer Michelle Sloane said that none of the infected trio were seriously ill.
The only other states to record new coronavirus infections on Sunday were Queensland and Western Australia, with one case each. A cafe and a pharmacy were among new exposure sites listed in Queensland on Sunday evening.
You can find out more details about how to book your vaccine through the Federal Government health site here.
