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.
© AAP 2021