As new cases of COVID-19 surge in NSW, the opposition says the government has allowed the rate of booster doses to fall behind other Australian states.
More than 20,000 new infections with the virus were reported on Friday as an Omicron sub-variant continues to cause uncertainty in the community.
"Quite clearly these are very, very concerning figures," opposition health spokesman Ryan Park said on Friday.
After "significant increases in cases" the government was lagging behind other states in encouraging the community to get booster doses, Mr Park said.
"What's very concerning is that we have a government falling behind when it comes to making sure our community gets their boosters," he said.
"We're behind Victoria, we're behind South Australia, and we are losing the race to get people their boosters."
Some 61.7 per cent of eligible people aged 16 and over had had their booster in NSW, trailing Victoria (67.1 per cent) and South Australia (70 per cent) as of Wednesday.
NSW reported 20,050 positive cases on Friday, 37 fewer than on Thursday.
New infection numbers appear to have stabilised after a data glitch on Wednesday led to a glut of rapid test results from Sunday and Monday which pushed the number of positive cases to more than 30,000.
Cases are expected to double over the next month as the highly transmissible BA2 sub-variant spreads in the community, NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard warned on Wednesday.
BA2 is expected to become "by far the dominant strain in NSW" within weeks, Acting Chief Health Officer Marianne Gale said.
Some 1060 people are currently hospitalised with COVID-19, with 32 in ICU and 15 on ventilators.
Of the six deaths reported on Friday, five were men and one was a woman.
Two were in their 70s and 80s, and four were in their 90s.
One person had received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, three had received two doses and two people had received booster shots.
Two of the people who died were from Sydney's northern beaches, one was from western Sydney, one from Sydney's inner west, one from northern Sydney and one from the Snowy Valley region.
The total number of COVID-19 related deaths in the state is now 2007, after the milestone of 2000 fatalities during the pandemic was passed on Thursday.
More than 95 per cent of people aged 16 and over have received a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 94.5 per cent had two doses as of Wednesday.
Some 83.5 per cent of children aged 12 to 15 have had one dose of a vaccine and 79.1 have received two.
Of children aged five to 11, 48.6 per cent have had one dose of a vaccine.
Australian Associated Press
