“Sunday will be the last day that we will officially hold a press conference in this way,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“The Minister (of Health) will hold press conferences intermittently as needed.”

She said she or other ministers will give press conferences to the community “as needed”.

“Expecting the government leader to do this indefinitely every day means I’m not doing my job properly,” she said.

“I have to make sure we have a good balance.”

She said reporters would still see her “quite frequently”.

“It can be three times a week instead of seven times a week,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“I will speak whenever there is something important to say.”

She pushed back against the suggestion that she was “going into hiding”.

‘Can I just say loud and clear to the people of NSW, we will be there whenever we need to communicate something very important to the community,’ she said.

“If there’s anything the public needs to hear directly from the government, whether it’s me, the health minister, the deputy prime minister, of course we will.”

The announcement represents a serious shake-up in the way the lockdown has been handled in New South Wales.

The daily press conference has become one of the few staples of NSW lockdown life – with its ratings sometimes rivaling those of primetime programming.

There have been 1,542 local cases of coronavirus in New South Wales in the past 24 hours.

Ms Berejiklian said she expected cases to peak next week.

Nine deaths have been recorded in the past 24 hours.

Seventy-six percent of NSW residents received their first dose and 43.6 percent received their second injection.

“But as the health experts have said, we’re looking forward to seeing that first dose rate hit 80+ and get as close to 90 as possible,” Ms Berejiklian said.