NSW has had another record day for its COVID-19 death toll - for the third time in less than a week - as the number of people who lost their lives almost doubled from Monday to Tuesday.
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Twenty-one people died with the virus across the state in the 24 hours to 8pm on January 11, up from 11 deaths the previous day.
Case numbers also soared, with 34,759 new infections recorded in the 24-hour period, up from 25,870 a day prior.
There were 134,411 tests recorded, 2246 people in hospital and 175 patients in intensive care.
The total number of active cases across the state is 333,235.
It was the pandemic's deadliest day in NSW, after the state set new records twice in recent days.
The previous day with the most deaths in NSW was in October, during the delta outbreak.
Victoria also recorded 21 deaths in the 24 hours to 8pm on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) is calling on the federal government to urgently repair what it calls the nation's troubled vaccine rollout for children aged five to 11.
The college says it has had widespread reports of practices receiving insufficient stock or expired vaccine doses, having orders cancelled at the last minute or doses not arriving without any explanation.
The RACGP wants the federal government to work with state and territory governments to make additional paediatric vaccines available to general practices, ensure GPs receive the doses they request, make more doses available to GPs and improve lines of communication between government and general practice teams.
IN OTHER NEWS:
"GPs and their practice teams are trying to vaccinate the nation's children with one arm tied behind their back," RACGP president Dr Karen Price said.
"Omicron cases are escalating and term one of school is fast approaching. Urgent improvements to the children's vaccine rollout must happen now so that our kids can receive at least one vaccine dose before returning to the classroom.
"GPs are telling me that they can't obtain enough stock, whilst others have had their orders cancelled at the last minute or received expired doses. Some practices are being given 50 or 100 doses a week when they have around 1500 children on their books. It's not hard to do the maths and realise that we simply cannot keep up with demand."
