NSW to lift restrictions next week but masks here to stay, Premier says

Residents in New South Wales could have a raft of COVID-19 restrictions lifted as early as next week, Premier Gladys Berejiklian says.

Ms Berejiklian said authorities are hoping to lift restrictions to "pre-Avalon cluster conditions", brought in in December, next week if testing levels remain high.

The news comes after NSW recorded zero cases of locally acquired COVID-19 overnight for the third day in a row.

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Testing levels nearly doubled overnight with almost 20,000 people tested within the last 24 hours.

Ms Berejiklian expressed her "deep gratitude" to the NSW community for coming forward to get tested and keeping the virus at bay.

"I cannot tell you how grateful I am," she said.

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Ms Berejiklian said the changes would be "simple and holistic" opposed to having small, incremental changes.

"We want to move forward in a confident way," she said.

Before the Northern Beaches outbreak, people in NSW were allowed to have up to 50 people at a private dwelling, pubs and restaurants were able to use the two-square-metre rule and workers were encouraged to go back into the office.

Ms Berejiklian would not provide exact details on which restrictions would be lifted, with an announcement expected early next week.

Masks here to stay

While people in NSW can look forward to increased caps on private and public gatherings, the mask mandate is likely to remain in place.

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Ms Berejiklian said mask wearing would act as a "fourth wall" of protection that would allow people to move more freely around the state and gather in larger groups.

"I do want to foreshadow mask wearing is something we will keep in place indefinitely," she said.  

"We still want to give people that extra line of defence."