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Fears are growing that Sydney's COVID restrictions could be extended as the city and its surrounds reach the halfway point of its 14-day lockdown.

Thirty-five possible exposure sites were identified by NSW Health on Friday evening after the state recorded its highest number of daily COVID-19 cases since the first wave in 2020.

Anyone who attended Exquisite Brows and Spa in the Marrickville Metro between 9am and 5pm last Saturday is a close contact and must isolate for 14 days. A Strathfield medical practice, the Manly Novotel and the Eastlakes Woolworths are also close contact venues.

Further alerts have been issued for venues in Burwood, Auburn, Homebush, Strathfield, Eastern Creek, Roselands, Villawood and Lakemba in Sydney's inner west and west; Bondi Beach and Bondi Junction in the east; Eastlakes, Matraville, Oatley, Caringbah, Kirrawee, Rockdale and South Hurstville in the south and southeast; and Avalon in the northern beaches.

Two legs of the 400 bus last Thursday have also been identified as COVID risks. The full details are on the NSW Health website.

Some 31 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 were diagnosed in the 24 hours to 8pm on Thursday, taking the outbreak tally to 226 cases.

Only a third were in isolation for the entirety of their illness, prompting concerns the lockdown rules imposed on Greater Sydney, the Central Coast, Blue Mountains and Wollongong will be extended beyond July 9.

Five of the newly reported cases remain under investigation.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Friday said she was relieved local case numbers had not significantly spiked in recent days, but authorities wanted to see a rise in the proportion of new cases already in isolation.

"I will say that the next few days are critical," she told reporters.

"Come early next week we do want to see that tide turned."

Eight of the new cases are associated with a 24-year-old student nurse who worked up to five days while infectious with COVID-19.

The cluster around the nurse now tallies 10, including five healthcare or aged care workers. Four of them worked while infectious, while one did not.

Almost 400 staff and patients deemed close contacts are in isolation, with authorities bracing for more cases.

Meanwhile, NSW has lifted stay-at-home orders for travellers from Western Australia, the Northern Territory and parts of Queensland as those states and territories have eased their own lockdowns.

However, visitors from Brisbane and Moreton Bay must remain at home, as must anyone in the Greater Sydney area.

A record 73,602 people were tested in the 24 hours to 8pm on Thursday.

The record for the daily number of vaccines administered by NSW Health was also broken, with 21,289 people jabbed in the 24-hour period.

However, Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant refused to be drawn on whether she would advise that the lockdown be extended.

Dr Chant said she would be looking closely at the number of new cases which were in isolation and at unlinked chains of transmission.

© AAP 2021

The police car that pursued an Indigenous man through suburban Melbourne at more than 150km/h in the seconds before his death has been likened to a "missile".

Raymond Noel Lindsay Thomas was killed just 21 seconds after the start of a high-speed police chase in June 2017, an inquest was told on Friday.

The high-performance patrol car that pursued him accelerated from zero to 103km/h in five seconds and reached a top speed of 156 km/h during the incident.

Antony Trood, representing the Thomas family, in his closing submissions said the officer behind the wheel, Sergeant John Sybenga, was driving at "race-track speed".

"Bob Jane would have been proud of that speed," Mr Trood said, referring to the former Australian race car driver.

"Cars at these speeds are missiles - it's as brutal as that."

He added that Raymond Noel's car had posed "no threat to public safety at all" before the pursuit and that Sgt Sybenga never actually knew how fast he was driving the police car.

Raymond Noel had left his house to buy cake mix and some chocolate from a Preston supermarket.

The 30-year-old Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Wiradjuri man had not been drinking or taking drugs and Sgt Sybenga said there was "nothing about the driving" that gave him "any suspicions".

But Raymond Noel had been driving an unregistered vehicle with interstate plates in an area known to police as a criminal hotspot.

Sgt Sybenga said it was "hard to sum up" why he chose to pursue Raymond Noel.

He simply thought the car was "worth looking at".

"It was just dodgy," Sgt Sybenga told the inquest.

Representing the chief commissioner, lawyer Ron Gipp said the officers didn't know who was driving the car.

Raymond Noel hit several parked cars before colliding with an oncoming vehicle driven by a man who was physically unharmed.

He was thrown from the car and suffered fatal injuries.

His father, Uncle Ray, has now called for changes in Victoria Police pursuit policy.

"We demand justice for Raymond and hope for changes of the police pursuit policies, so this doesn't happen to any other family," Uncle Ray told reporters outside the Victorian Coroners Court, on the last of the day inquest.

"We want those responsible to be held accountable and for them to realise the grief and trauma that they have caused."

Uncle Ray said his son was a "beautiful " and "kind-hearted" man who was protective of his family, friends and community.

"Whenever he walked into a room he would light it up, because he was six-foot-eight," Raymond Noel's father said.

"He was affectionately referred to around the family and the community as the 'gentle giant'. He is deeply missed by us."

Raymond Noel's death occurred after Victoria Police introduced a new pursuits policy in 2016, following a series of recommendations from coroner John Olle.

His recommendations followed an inquest into the deaths of teenagers Sarah Booth, 17, in 2006 and Jason Kumar, 15, in 2009.

The inquest examined the circumstances and appropriateness of the decision to follow Raymond Noel's vehicle, and of the decision by officers to instigate a pursuit.

Counsel assisting Michael Rivette recommended that police no longer conduct pursuits for "minor traffic offences".

He also said police needed more practical and specific pursuit training, suggesting that driving simulators be introduced.

The court previously heard the two officers involved in the pursuit, Sgt Sybenga and Senior Constable Deborah McFarlane, were experienced and licensed to drive at unlimited speeds.

Mr Olle will hand down his findings at a later date.

© AAP 2021

The Northern Territory's COVID-19 lockdowns have ended, but residents will have to wear masks and socially distance in public for seven more days.

Greater Darwin was locked down on Sunday and Alice Springs on Wednesday after an outbreak of the Delta variant at a central Australian mine.

The stay-home orders ended at 1pm on Friday for both jurisdictions.

"It is over. I know it's been a bit of a wild ride but we are really happy with what's come through overnight," Chief Minister Michael Gunner told reporters.

"I don't think we can underestimate how close the Territory came to the edge of the cliff this week."

Mt Gunner said authorities were faced with a "nightmare scenario" as the pandemic came perilously close to the NT's vulnerable Aboriginal communities.

"There were times over the weekend when we thought that might become real," he said, referring to an outbreak in Alice Springs town camps or among Darwin's many so-called long grassers.

"We knew COVID was in our community but we didn't know how bad it was or how far it had spread."

"Inaction could have been devastating."

Mr Gunner said the NT didn't have the "luxury" of waiting and authorities had gone hard and fast and "trapped the virus".

"The virus was here but it did not spread and now we are safe again," he said.

Under the new health directions, there will be no restrictions on people leaving home or travel restrictions in and out of lockdown areas.

But people will be required to wear masks in public if they can't socially distance 1.5 metres from others until July 9.

Patrons will be required to be seated at hospitality venues and gatherings at private residences will be limited to 10 visitors.

Indoor exercise venues and markets have been identified as the highest-risk sites and will need to remain closed for another seven days.

Schools, vacation care and childcare centres will reopen

Additionally, anyone who enters the NT after leaving a non-territory quarantine facility must get a COVID test within three days.

The crisis started on Saturday when a young Victorian mine worker, who travelled to Newmont's Granites Mine about 540km northwest of Alice Springs via a Brisbane quarantine hotel, tested positive for the virus.

More than 700 workers were immediately ordered to isolate as authorities scrambled to track about 800 more who had flown to their homes around Australia after the infected miner arrived on June 18.

It's understood 18 cases were linked to the outbreak as authorities shut down exposure sites and isolated close contacts.

Plans to lift the lockdowns in Darwin on Friday and Alice Springs on Saturday were thrown into jeopardy on Thursday after it was revealed another infected miner allegedly breached his isolation order and lied to authorities.

The man in his 50s was moved to the National Centre for Resilience at Howard Springs, near Darwin, on Sunday after reporting he had spent 36 hours in the community.

But he allegedly lied to health workers about his movements after he was ordered to stay home and wait to be moved to Howard Springs.

A furious Mr Gunner on Thursday revealed the man had allegedly breached the health direction and visited a Darwin supermarket to buy cigarettes on Sunday before entering quarantine.

That venue immediately became a public exposure site on Thursday as health workers raced to contact trace customers and workers for COVID testing.

They identified 49 casual contacts overnight, tested and isolated them with all results coming back negative on Friday.

The Top End wastewater results were also negative, with a jubilant Mr Gunner saying it had given health officials the confidence to end the lockdown.

"You can head out for a beer and a meal, see loved ones, all the things that feel really special to us," he said.

"The Territory this weekend is going to feel extra, extra special. Enjoy it."

© AAP 2021