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NSW has recorded four more deaths and 415 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19, as a statewide lockdown continues.

At least 66 people were circulating in the community for all or part of their infectious period, with 273 more cases under investigation.

All those who died were from Sydney's southwest: a woman in her 50s in Campbelltown Hospital, a woman in her 70s in Royal North Shore Hospital, another in her 80s in Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and a man in his 80s in Liverpool Hospital.

Of them, only one was fully vaccinated but had underlying health conditions.

The death toll stands at 48 for this outbreak, with 62 people in intensive care, 24 of them requiring ventilation.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says while "much more work" is to be done, the case tally is a "welcome drop" from Saturday's figures when the state recorded 466 new cases.

"Yesterday was an absolute wake-up call," she told reporters.

"We can't stress enough that we don't want to go down the path of all these other places overseas where they have literally thousands and thousands and thousands of cases a day.

"If too many people do the wrong thing ... NSW and Australia will follow what has happened (there) ..."

The west and southwest remain Sydney's areas of most worry including Blacktown, Mount Druitt, Marayong, Merrylands, Auburn and Guildford. In the regions, the state's west is generating concern.

More than half of the new locally acquired cases to 8pm on Saturday were from Sydney's west and southwest.

Forty two were also recorded in the central Sydney health area, 36 in the Blue Mountains, 31 in South Eastern Sydney and 21 in Western NSW.

Inland NSW remains a concern, especially in relation to vulnerable Indigenous communities.

"In terms of the risk areas, I am very concerned about western NSW," chief health officer Kerry Chant said.

"We have cases in Dubbo, cases in Walgett and we have exposures and sewage detections in a number of other areas such as Bourke."

The virus was also detected in the Lennox Head sewerage plant in the north of the state.

Dr Chant also confirmed that a 15 year old COVID positive boy had been among those admitted to hospital although he was also being treated for pneumococcal meningitis.

Ms Berejiklian meanwhile said five million doses had been given out in NSW with half of the state's eligible population having now received their first vaccination.

She also welcomed the half a million Pfizer vaccines to be supplied to NSW by the Commonwealth.

"Please know we will be putting that to very good use, we'll be targeting 16- to 39-year-olds in those local government areas of concern," she said.

All of NSW entered a seven-day lockdown early Saturday evening, with police handed stronger powers to enforce regulations.

Officers will be out from midnight on Sunday in affected local government areas and able to impose fines of up to $5000 for breaching health orders.

On Saturday night, 529 infringement notices were issued for breaches and 29 people were charged.

Thirty one young people were among those fined after gathering at Clovelly, in Sydney's east on Saturday night.

Deputy police commissioner Mick Willing said from Sunday night 1400 Highway Patrol officers would be on patrol.

"The unprecedented operation will see thousands of police officers from police districts and police area commands across the state working alongside our colleagues from the Australian Defence Force, enforcing the strength public health orders," he said.

People in Greater Sydney will need a permit to travel to regional NSW and single people will need to register their "singles buddies".

In newly-locked down regional areas, people must only leave their residence for an essential reason.

Everyone must carry masks at all times, no visitors are allowed in the home unless for carers' responsibilities or for compassionate reasons, and those in a relationship.

© AAP 2021

The territory controlled by the crumbling Afghan government has shrunk to little more than Kabul as the Taliban took the key eastern city of Jalalabad without a fight, while the United States sent more troops to help evacuate its civilians.

The fall of the last major city outside the capital secured for the insurgents the roads connecting Afghanistan to Pakistan, a western official said on Sunday.

It followed the Taliban's seizure of the major northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

"There are no clashes taking place right now in Jalalabad because the governor has surrendered to the Taliban," a Jalalabad-based Afghan official told Reuters. "Allowing passage to the Taliban was the only way to save civilian lives."

The hardline militants have swept through the country in recent weeks as US-led forces withdrew. The Taliban campaign accelerated to lightning speed in the last week, shocking Western countries as the Afghan military's defences appeared to collapse.

US President Joe Biden on Saturday authorised the deployment of 5000 troops to help evacuate citizens and ensure an "orderly and safe" drawdown of US military personnel. A US defence official said that included 1000 newly approved troops from the 82nd Airborne Division.

Taliban fighters entered Mazar-i-Sharif on Saturday virtually unopposed as security forces escaped up the highway to neighbouring Uzbekistan, about 80 km to the north, provincial officials said.

Unverified video on social media showed Afghan army vehicles and men in uniforms crowding the iron bridge between the Afghan town of Hairatan and Uzbekistan.

Two influential militia leaders supporting the government - Atta Mohammad Noor and Abdul Rashid Dostum - also fled. Noor said on social media that the Taliban had been handed control of Balkh province, where Mazar-i-Sharif is located, due to a "conspiracy."

In a statement late on Saturday, the Taliban said its rapid gains showed it was popularly accepted by the Afghan people and reassured both Afghans and foreigners that they would be safe.

The Islamic Emirate (Taliban) "will, as always, protect their life, property and honour and create a peaceful and secure environment for its beloved nation," it said, adding that diplomats and aid workers would also face no problems.

As the capital looked increasingly isolated as a government stronghold, Afghans streamed into Kabul, fleeing the provinces and fearing a return to hardline Islamist rule.

Hundreds of people slept huddled in tents or in the open in the city, by roadsides or in car parks, a resident said. "You can see the fear in their faces," he said.

Western governments were accelerating plans to evacuate their embassy staff, citizens and Afghans who had worked for them.

American troops arrived in Kabul to protect the operation and keep control of the airport. The State Department has reached out to advocates to request names of Afghans in Kabul who have worked with the Americans and need to be evacuated, two sources familiar with the matter said. The list of names could include journalists and human rights activists.

The British ambassador will leave the country by Sunday evening, UK media reported. The country, which was sending 600 troops, sped up the departure of Britons due to the rising risk that the Taliban would overrun the airport, the reports said.

Biden said his administration had told Taliban officials in Qatar that any action that put US personnel at risk "will be met with a swift and strong US military response."

Earlier the Taliban, facing little resistance, took Pul-e-Alam, capital of Logar province and 70 km south of Kabul, according to a local provincial council member, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Police officials, however, denied reports that the Taliban had advanced closer to Kabul from Pul-e-Alam, which is a staging post for a potential assault on the capital.

Kandahar, the biggest city in the south and the heartland of the Taliban, fell to the militants' control on Friday as US-led forces complete their withdrawal after 20 years of war launched after the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001.

Biden has faced rising domestic criticism as the Taliban have taken city after city far more quickly than predicted. The president has stuck to a plan, initiated by Republican former President Donald Trump, to end the US military mission in Afghanistan by Aug. 31.

Biden said it is up to the Afghan military to hold its own territory. "An endless American presence in the middle of another country's civil conflict was not acceptable to me," Biden said on Saturday.

© RAW 2021

The Taliban has seized the last major city outside of Kabul held by the country's increasingly isolated central government, cutting off the capital to the east as helicopters began landing at the US Embassy there.

The collapse on Sunday of Jalalabad, near a major border crossing with Pakistan, leaves Afghanistan's central government in control of just Kabul and seven other provincial capitals out of the country's 34.

In a nationwide offensive that has taken just over a week, the Taliban has defeated, co-opted or sent Afghan security forces fleeing from wide swathes of the country, even with some air support by the US military.

The rapid shuttle-run flights near the embassy began a few hours later as diplomatic armoured SUVs could be seen leaving the area around the post.

The US government did not immediately acknowledge the movements. However, wisps of smoke could be seen near the embassy's roof as diplomats urgently destroyed sensitive documents, according to two American military officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the situation.

President Ashraf Ghani, who spoke to the nation on Saturday for the first time since the offensive began, appears increasingly isolated as well. Warlords he negotiated with just days earlier have surrendered to the Taliban or fled, leaving Ghani without a military option. Ongoing negotiations in Qatar, the site of a Taliban office, also have failed to stop the insurgents' advance.

Thousands of civilians now live in parks and open spaces in Kabul itself, fearing the future. While Kabul appeared calm Sunday, some ATMs stopped distributing cash as hundreds gathered in front of private banks, trying to withdraw their life savings.

Militants posted photos online early on Sunday showing them in the governor's office in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province.

Abrarullah Murad, a lawmaker from the province told The Associated Press that the insurgents seized Jalalabad after elders negotiated the fall of the government there. Murad said there was no fighting as the city surrendered.

The fall on Saturday of Mazar-e-Sharif, the country's fourth largest city, which Afghan forces and two powerful former warlords had pledged to defend, handed the insurgents control over all of northern Afghanistan.

In his speech Saturday, Ghani vowed not to give up the achievements of the 20 years since the US-led invasion toppled the Taliban after the 9/11 attacks.

The US has continued holding peace talks between the government and the Taliban in Qatar this week, and the international community has warned that a Taliban government brought about by force would be shunned.

But the insurgents appear to have little interest in making concessions as they rack up victories on the battlefield.

"We have started consultations, inside the government with elders and political leaders, representatives of different levels of the community as well as our international allies," Ghani said.

"Soon the results will be shared with you," he added, without elaborating further.

Many Afghans fear a return to the Taliban's oppressive rule. The group had previously governed Afghanistan under a harsh version of Islamic law in which women were forbidden to work or attend school, and could not leave their homes without a male relative accompanying them.

In a statement late Saturday, however, the Taliban insisted their fighters wouldn't enter people's homes or interfere with businesses. They also said they would offer an amnesty to those who worked with the Afghan government or foreign forces.

"The Islamic Emirate once again assures all its citizens that it will, as always, protect their life, property and honour and create a peaceful and secure environment for its beloved nation," the militants said. "In this regard, no one should worry about their life."

Despite the pledge, those who can afford a ticket have been flocking to Kabul International Airport, the only way out of the country.

© RAW 2021