Children will return to school in NSW from October 25, while the premier has promised everyone would have "more freedom" once 70 per cent of the state's population was fully vaccinated.
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Gladys Berejiklian said the government was working on plans to reopen certain industries in a "very staged and safe way" at the 70 per cent mark.
"Even if you open up with 20 cases or 30 cases or zero cases, Delta is going to creep in and out and cases will increase as the rate of freedom increases," she said on Friday.
"It is really important for all of us to come to terms with that."
NSW reported 882 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 and two more deaths on Friday.
The two people who died were a previously reported man in his 60s in western Sydney and a man in his 90s at Concord Hospital. Both had received one vaccine dose.
There are currently 767 infected people in hospital, with 117 in intensive care and 47 on ventilators, but the premier said mortality and hospitalisation rates in NSW were 'relatively low' compared to other parts of the world.
Ms Berejiklian said HSC exams for year 12 students would be pushed back to November 9, and all people working on school campuses must be vaccinated by November 8.
Priority vaccinations will be scheduled for school campus staff from September 6.
The government is planning a staged return to school from October 25, when kindergarten and year one children return, years two, six and 11 return from November 1, and remaining year groups a week later.
Year 12 students studying for their HSC exams will have full-time access to school campuses for study purposes from October 25.
If stay-at-home orders are lifted in some local government areas before then, all students in those LGAs can return to school.
The plan was cautiously welcomed by the public school teachers union.
The Pfizer jab has now been officially approved for use by Australian health authorities to vaccinate children aged 12 to 15.
Meanwhile, one in 15 people in a remote, predominantly Indigenous NSW town have now caught the coronavirus, a rate five times higher than Sydney's worst hotspot.
Nine of Friday's new cases were in Wilcannia, where the outbreak has sparked a food shortage and a rush to get the vulnerable population vaccinated.
The NSW government also on Friday announced a $200 million support package for not-for-profit organisations operating amid the outbreak.
The plans follow Thursday's announcement of a long-promised change to restrictions when the state reached six million jabs.
From September 13, up to five fully vaccinated adults outside the western Sydney's LGAs of concern can gather outdoors, while vaccinated households inside those 12 council areas can gather outdoors for recreation but not with other households.
Australian Associated Press
