More than half of Australia's near 26 million population has been in lockdown in recent weeks after an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant took hold in the New South Wales capital of Sydney and spread to three states.

New South Wales reported 172 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, up from 145 a day earlier, with at least 60 spending time in the community while infectious.

New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said a decision whether to lift the five-week lockdown will be taken this week, and local media later reported the state would announce a four-week extension of the order on Wednesday. With less than 13 percent of the state's population fully vaccinated, curbs are expected to stay.

"We know we've put in the hard yards for five weeks and we don't want to waste all the good work that we've done by opening too early and then having the virus spread again," Berejiklian told a media conference.

A spokesperson was not immediately available to confirm the media reports about the planned lockdown extension.

In contrast, Victoria state said most restrictions imposed on July 15 will be removed from Wednesday after recording just 10 infections of people already in quarantine.

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