Australia's most populous state reported a record number of new Covid-19 cases and a sharp jump in hospitalisations while thousands of people were isolating at home after contracting the virus or coming into contact with someone who has, AP reports.

New South Wales reported 6,394 new infections, up from 6,288 a day earlier. Case numbers in the state have surged over the past two weeks but hospitalisations have lagged behind new infections.

More than 70 per cent of cases in some Australian states are the Omicron variant of the coronavirus but New South Wales does not routinely carry out genome testing to identify the variant.