NSW has recorded another 12,632 coronavirus cases and 38 deaths as hospitalisations continue to fall.

There are now 2578 people now in hospital with the virus, the lowest since mid-January and 160 people are in intensive care.

There are 825 more cases of the virus than the previous day, but cases have generally fallen over the past two weeks, and the government has warned they could increase again as children return to school.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has challenged those questioning the return of students to classrooms.

Many students had lost one-quarter of their face-to-face learning during the pandemic, he said on Wednesday.

“We cannot ruin our children’s future,” he said.

While the school year will have “bumps along the way” it was the “right thing to do”.

“We have a duty as a government, we have a duty as a people, to ensure our kids are given better opportunities than we had,” he said.

Families beginning the school year with their children not vaccinated are being urged to do so “without delay”, NSW Health’s Dr Jeremy McAnulty said.

The opposition has been calling for schools to be turned into vaccination hubs for five-to-11-year-olds.

Labor education spokeswoman Prue Car says the state “desperately” needs to lift the vaccination rate among those children.

“This would ease the anxieties of parents and teachers and school communities,” she said.

Some 41 per cent of five to 11-year-olds have received a first dose, with the age group becoming eligible for COVID-19 vaccines three weeks ago.

Some 83.3 per cent of children aged 12 to 15 have had one dose, and 78.5 per cent are fully vaccinated.

This is compared with 95 per cent of people aged 16 and over having had one dose, 94 per cent who are fully vaccinated and 40.7 per cent of people 18 and over having received a booster.

AAP

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