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Authorities are grappling with Sydney residents hiding the presence of COVID-19 within their families for fear of losing incomes.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard says it is unclear whether a man in his 60s who died in the city's southwest had been tested for the virus beforehand. However his family were suffering symptoms.

The state recorded 210 new locally acquired cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Friday.

The man's death was the 14th of the current outbreak, which started in mid-June.

Mr Hazzard says a "terrible situation" has arisen where families, particularly in the southwest, are not coming forward when one of them falls ill.

Some people may be worried about their ability to go to work and earn an income if it's known there is a case in their household, he told reporters on Saturday.

At least 32 of the latest 210 people declared infected are known to have been so while in the community at least part of the time.

However the isolation status of a further 120 NSW cases is still under investigation.

Mr Hazzard declared the Delta variant "partial to younger people" with just under two thirds of the new cases (138) aged under 40.

Younger people are also being hospitalised, he said.

Of the 53 people in intensive care, six are in their 20s, four are in their 30s, one is in their 40s, 18 are in their 50s, 14 are in their 60s, nine are in their 70s and one is in their 80s.

"The older age brackets are actually having less numbers now, it is the younger people who are actually taking up places in our intensive care units," he said.

There are 203 people in hospital with COVID-19 in NSW. Twenty-seven are ventilated.

"By far the majority" of new cases continued to be diagnosed in Sydney's southwest and western Sydney, Mr Hazzard said.

The risk of COVID-positive patients coming into hospital and sending hundreds of health workers into isolation has led the state to suspend non-urgent elective surgery.

But Mr Hazzard said a number of procedures will be dealt with by the private health system instead.

Greater Sydney and surrounding regions are in lockdown until at least August 28, as health authorities battle to contain a outbreak of the virulent Delta strain.

Saturday marked the return to work for the construction sector after a fortnight-long enforced break, with work allowed to resume on non-occupied sites provided COVID-safe plans are in force.

But the sector cannot call on 68,000 workers - or 42 per cent of the workforce - from eight council areas worst-hit by the city's coronavirus outbreak.

The state's workplace safety regulator says construction sites should expect a visit to ensure they're complying with public health orders.

Meanwhile a threatened anti-lockdown protest in central Sydney failed to eventuate on Saturday.

Police set up an exclusion zone around the city between 9am and 3pm after also warning taxi and rideshare companies they would face fines of up to half a million dollars for transporting passengers into the CBD.

The zone stretched from the Bradfield Highway at Milsons Point north of the Harbour Bridge, to the City West Link at Lilyfield, to South Dowling St near Todman Ave at Zetland, and east to New South Head Rd near Ocean Ave at Edgecliff.

Police also had a high-visibility presence on all major roads leading into the city, while the Harbour Tunnel was closed.

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Up to a thousand police officers will be on duty to meet anyone considering attending an anti-lockdown protest in Sydney this weekend, NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller has warned.

Mr Fuller told a press conference on Friday that police had already detained 60 people from last week's protests and issued more than 200 infringement notices.

The commissioner said after monitoring online activity, police had to "expect there's going to be a protest".

"It appears it will not be in the same numbers. But ...(it) can still be violent," the commissioner said.

"Please don't come into Sydney tomorrow to protest. If you do, you will be met by up to 1000 police who will be ready to deal with you, whether that be via the health orders or other laws," Mr Fuller warned.

NSW Chief Medical Officer Kerry Chant said authorities were still investigating whether a COVID-positive person had attended last Saturday's protest, which saw thousands march through Sydney's CBD demonstrating against the state's lockdown laws.

NSW Police have confirmed a 35-year-old man from Granville, in Sydney's west, was caught more than 20km away at the city's central station by police targeting protesters, despite being subject to stay-at-home orders.

The man, who was fined $1000 dollars, was directed home and tested positive to COVID the next day.

"We're just working with police to ascertain whether that person did attend. The police did indicate they had turned the person around and they had given an infringement notice," Dr Chant told reporters.

"If that person would have attended the protest, they would have been infectious."

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said if the COVID-positive man had attended the rally, "he was effectively carrying a deadly weapon, he was carrying the virus".

Dr Chant said investigations were still underway to work out whether any of the new NSW cases could be linked to the protest.

"People may not be open that they attended the protest. I am not aware of any cases that have arisen from the protest but many people may choose not to disclose that," Dr Chant said.

"I am totally committed to the fact that we need to have low tolerance for where people are flagrantly breaking the rule - this is too much of a severe disease, too serious a situation to be in, to have people knowingly going out when they are positive," she told reporters.

A NSW Police strike force was set up following last week's protests with up to 20,000 tip-offs to Crime Stoppers about attendees, with photos and names sent to police.

On Friday Mr Fuller said police will be waiting for anyone planning to protest this weekend, and they had been given plenty of warnings.

Mr Hazzard had his own warning.

"You have to be crackers to go to that demonstration tomorrow because there will be a lot of people potentially with a deadly weapon, Delta virus," Mr Hazzard said.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian told would-be protesters, "your actions will hurt".

"Do not give those you love the most a death sentence," she said.

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Australia's leaders will begin charting a course to fully reopening the nation based on new coronavirus vaccination rate modelling.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison will on Friday chair a national cabinet meeting of state premiers and territory chief ministers.

Leaders will be presented with Doherty Institute modelling which calculates immunisation coverage needed to avoid lockdowns and restart international travel.

Cabinet minister Peter Dutton urged people to get vaccinated as soon as possible.

"If you live in Queensland or in Victoria or elsewhere around country at the moment, look at what's happening in NSW, it could happen here tomorrow," he said.

"We're fortunate in Queensland at the moment but if you think you've got time to get vaccinated or you don't think it's going to happen, think again, you've got to get vaccinated."

Mr Dutton said none of those hospitalised with coronavirus in NSW had been fully vaccinated, and argued it would be the unvaccinated who suffered once the country opened up.

The prime minister tempered expectations of a concrete outcome like setting a "Freedom Day" similar to the United Kingdom's widespread dropping of restrictions.

"You don't just pick a day and, you know, get some fireworks," he told 3AW.

"That's not science. It's not medicine. It's not policy."

Mr Morrison said the infectious disease modelling would be considered alongside Treasury's economic advice to inform the path out of restrictions.

"Now, will we get there in one meeting? No, I don't think we will. If we do, great," he said.

"But if we don't get there in one meeting, we'll keep meeting until we work out what those rates are."

He remains confident a vaccination rate will be determined at some stage.

"There'll be a straight answer on that. But I won't be making it up, I won't be pulling it out of the air."

About 17.7 per cent of people 16 and over have received both doses of a coronavirus vaccine.

Deputy Opposition Leader Richard Marles described the vaccination rate as "pathetically low" and warned the number would need to be much higher before Australia moved past the pandemic.

Labor and key crossbench senator Rex Patrick are demanding the Doherty Institute's work be fully released.

He considers it essential to improving public confidence.

"There is no justification for withholding the Doherty Institute's modelling in advance of government decisions on future pandemic strategy," Senator Patrick said.

Sydney's COVID-19 crisis continues to deepen with 239 new local cases recorded on Thursday.

The city and surrounding regional areas are facing a lengthy lockdown with heavy restrictions to remain in place until at least the end of next month.

National cabinet will also receive an update on virus data, vaccine rollout and the code for truckies to move around the country.

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Lockdowns will to continue to be used in Australia's fight against coronavirus outbreaks until at least 70 per cent of people are fully vaccinated.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday announced thresholds to drop restrictions and reopen the nation after a national cabinet meeting with state and territory leaders.

The nation will move to a new stage of the fight against the virus when seven in every 10 people eligible for the jab have received both doses.

In that phase, lockdowns will be possible but unlikely with low-level restrictions favoured to minimise serious illness, hospitalisation and deaths.

International passenger arrivals will return to levels before the Delta strain prompted them being halved to about 3000 a week.

When 80 per cent of people have been fully vaccinated, city-wide lockdowns are expected to end with restrictions to be targeted to protect outbreaks among vulnerable populations.

Fully vaccinated residents will be exempt from all domestic restrictions, while caps on returning Australians will be abolished.

People who had received both jabs will be allowed to travel overseas and travellers from countries with high vaccination rates will be given the green light to enter.

For people to be approved for quarantine-free entry, they will have to be vaccinated with a jab recognised in Australia.

Just 18.2 per cent of people aged 16 and over have been fully vaccinated against coronavirus more than five months after the rollout started.

More than 210,000 doses of vaccines were administered in the past 24 hours, the second consecutive record day.

Mr Morrison refused to set a timeline on reaching the thresholds, saying it was up to the public as well as federal and state government to achieve high immunisation rates.

"We get there when we get there and I hope we get there as soon as we can," he told reporters in Canberra.

The prime minister warned the emergence of a new variant could change the plan, while also signalling the continuation of a cautious approach to reopening.

"This is not about freedom days and things like that. We've always been in Australia taking our own path."

It is anticipated the 70 per cent "transition phase" could be reached this later this year.

The final stage, which will include a full reopening of international borders and minimisation of local cases without restrictions, has no vaccination threshold attached.

That will include a booster shot program, which Mr Morrison is confident the country will have ample supplies for.

National cabinet's new path out of the pandemic is based on scientific modelling from the Doherty Institute and advice from federal and state treasuries about economic impacts.

Mr Morrison, who last month praised the NSW government for avoiding a lockdown despite cases rising, said no one had perfect hindsight.

"We all humbly learn from these things and we make the adjustments and get on with it."

There were 170 new local cases in NSW reported on Friday with lockdowns in Sydney and surrounds set to continue until at least the end of next month.

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