Premier Gladys Berejiklian expressed a mix of both shock and pride as she announced on Tuesday morning that more than 44,000 NSW people had fronted for a COVID-19 test in the previous 24 hours, a national daily record through this pandemic.

But even better news was the fact those 44,000 tests returned just eight positive results, the best indication yet that the decisive action taken by the state government might be bringing the Northern Beaches cluster under control.

What's less clear at the moment, though, is just what those low numbers will mean for families still hoping to get together for Christmas Day.

The current stay-at-home orders for Northern Beaches residents and the limits on visitors to homes across Greater Sydney, the Central Coast and Wollongong remain in effect until 11.59pm on Wednesday, with the NSW cabinet to meet during the day to decide what will happen after that.

If the premier reports another day of single-figure infections when she addresses the media on Wednesday morning then we should be confident that restrictions won't be tightened for Christmas Eve and Christmas. But even if Wednesday does bring good news, it's hard to imagine restrictions being greatly eased at this stage either.

There may be some slight relief for locked-down Northern Beaches residents who are enduring the worst of the restrictions, but the government will be loath to give residents the green light to move around and mix with complete freedom just yet.

The prospect of Christmas Day followed by New Year's Eve just six days later should rightly concern health officials.

These are traditionally days when people gather in large numbers to celebrate the season but the last thing we need to close out this diabolical year is is a series of "super spreader" parties across the state.

We were always warned that the path out of COVID would not be a straight line with plenty of twists and bends as infection hotspots appear and are doused.

Hopefully the past week has shown NSW can handle the occasional outbreak, but it has also shown that we still need to be careful for just a little bit longer.

The rollercoaster ride that has been 2020 has not come to a complete stop just yet.