Exactly what Gladys Berejiklian has said about whether Sydney's lockdown will be extended.

New South Wales recorded 18 new cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm on Monday night. It comes as five million Sydney residents wait to learn whether the two-week lockdown will lift on Friday as initially planned.

Of the new cases, 11 were in isolation for the entirety of their infectious period and 16 cases were linked to a known case or cluster. The origin of two cases remains under investigation and these two cases were also in the community while infectious. 

NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant says NSW now has 26 people in hospital with COVID-19, including six in ICU. Of these, two are on a ventilator.

In the past 24 hours there were only 32,000 people who were tested, with the government asking for at least 40,000 people to get tested every day to ensure there are no unknown strains of transmission in the community.

Here's what we know about whether Sydney's lockdown will be extended.

Will Sydney lockdown be extended?

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has said that whilst the lockdown has been successful, she is not yet certain what the health advice will be regarding if the 'stay-at-home' orders should be extended past midnight on Friday. 

Ms Berejiklian said she will announce if they will extend the lockdown tomorrow, at her regular 11am press conference. 

"We have been having various discussions with health experts and others in the last few days and that will continue throughout today and into the early evening," Ms Berejiklian said. 

It comes as schools are due to return next week, meaning NSW parents are yet to know if they will be homeschooling their kids.

Gladys Berejiklian will announce if Sydney's lockdown will be extended tomorrow. Image: Getty. 

"People want to know what life will look like beyond Friday midnight, and I am keen to provide that certainty to people tomorrow so that people can make arrangements if they need."

So what are they looking at to determine if lockdown will end or extend?

"What the health experts look at is trends and to see the direction in which things are going," the Premier explained. "We know definitely that the lockdown has been successful in not exponentially increasing the rate of disease. What is really scary about the Delta strain, if you look at other countries around the world, is two cases become 20 become 100 or 200 very quickly."

The Premier added she wants this to be the "last lockdown" before 80 per cent of the population is vaccinated. At the moment, about 19 per cent of the NSW population have been vaccinated.

Feature image: Getty.