Gladys Berejiklian is sticking to a minimum two-week time frame before opening the border with Victoria, but won't guarantee it will happen before Christmas.
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The NSW premier says she will wait and see how Victoria deals with the inevitable outbreaks as restrictions ease and people mingle again.
"The real test is how do you deal with that. Are you able to control them? Are you able to find the sources of those infections?" she said on Thursday.
"Once we see evidence of that for two-or-three weeks after the restrictions are eased well then we'll rely on the health advice."
NSW had proved its resilience by keeping its borders open to all states bar Victoria and was now welcoming New Zealanders and processing 3000 returning travellers every week.
"Our system has been tried and tested and regrettably Victoria is not yet in that position," Ms Berejiklian said.
NSW recorded three new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 and one case in a returned traveller in hotel quarantine in the 14,230 tests reported to 8pm on Wednesday night.
The three local cases were from the same household and had been isolating, but were not currently linked to an existing cluster, Ms Berejiklian said.
Another locally acquired case - recorded after the 8pm cut off - will would be included in Friday's numbers.
Two of the new cases were students from the Hoxton Park campus of the Malek Fahd Islamic School, in Sydney's west.
The school was being cleaned and had closed for 14 days for contact tracing.
A public health alert has also been issued for a gym in Sydney's southwest after a confirmed case visited almost every day for two weeks.
Gym-goers who attended classes at Leppington F45 gym at the same time as the confirmed case between October 15 and 28 are close contacts and must get tested immediately and isolate for 14 days.
Those who attended classes immediately before and after those classes, listed on the NSW Health website, are casual contacts and must monitor for symptoms.
An infected person also recently attended a number of venues across southwest Sydney including Flip Out Prestons Indoor Trampoline Park and Jasmins Lebanese Restaurant in Liverpool.
Anyone who had attended the venues for at least one hour on Sunday should get tested and self-isolate for 14 days.
The infectious person also visited Westfield Bondi Junction on Saturday, Watsup Brothers kebab shop in Condell Park on Saturday, Ali Baba Charcoal Chicken in Auburn on Monday and Carnes Hill Marketplace on Tuesday.
NSW Health said COVID-19 virus fragments had also been identified in sewage at treatment plants in West Camden on Wednesday, prompting renewed calls for residents there to get tested.
Detection of the virus in sewage samples could reflect the presence of recent cases of COVID-19. However, NSW Health is concerned there could be other active cases in people who have not been tested.
Australian Associated Press