John Barilaro says Newcastle's fate is not tied to Sydney's when it comes to ending lockdowns, but the city's stay-at-home orders are likely to extend past this week.
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Answering questions during a new daily update with regional media on Monday, the Deputy Premier said much of regional NSW could emerge from its one-week lockdown this weekend if case numbers remained low.
He said this could include parts of the Hunter, including Singleton and Muswellbrook, which have not had a positive case during the region's August outbreak.
He said the Newcastle area, which recorded 16 new cases on Monday, and virus-hit Dubbo, which recorded 35, were unlikely to escape from stay-at-home restrictions at the same time.
But he said chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant was "relieved" that the Hunter's case numbers had "stabilised".
The Lower Hunter is a major urban area bordering Greater Sydney, placing it in a different position to the rest of regional NSW.
But Mr Barilaro said Newcastle was "not linked to Sydney" with regard to lockdowns.
"It's good news," he said. "Newcastle is linked to Newcastle and regional NSW."
His comments suggest the government is open to removing restrictions in the Lower Hunter if cases drop and sewage detections disappear, even if the virus is still widespread in Sydney.
NSW reported 478 new cases and seven deaths on Monday, most of them in western Sydney.
None of the patients who died were fully vaccinated.
Mr Barilaro said at the earlier statewide COVID update that the 16 new Lower Hunter cases were "all either close contacts or in isolation", but Hunter New England Health said in its daily report that six had been infectious in the community.
HNEH public health controller Dr David Durrheim said the cases active in the community were of particular concern in East Maitland.
Eight of the new cases are in the Maitland local government area, five in Newcastle, two in Lake Macquarie and one in Port Stephens.
Thirteen are linked to known sources of infection, but the other three are under investigation. Two are in aged care homes.
Mr Barilaro said sewage tests were a "reliable" indicator of infection in a community, nominating virus traces in Burke, Parkes and Lennox Head as concerning.
HNEH said on Sunday that virus loads in sewage from Raymond Terrace, Williamtown and Medowie were the "highest anywhere in NSW", but Mr Barilaro said on Monday that he was unaware of these test results.
The Redeemed Christian Church of God in Crescent Road, Waratah, was named on Monday as a close contact site for all of August.
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The church's exposure times are all day from Saturday, July 31, to August 15. Anyone at the church in those 16 days must isolate for 14 days and get tested.
The University of Newcastle announced that one of the new cases was a student, a close contact of a previously confirmed case. The student had been in isolation on campus and was now in the care of NSW Health.
HNEH said some Facebook feeds had incorrectly nominated the Mater hospital emergency department as an exposure site.
Two previous cases assigned to the Singleton local government area have been moved to Cessnock.
Mr Barilaro said the state's COVID-19 testing delays, which have stretched beyond six days for Laverty Pathology samples in the Hunter, were "not good enough" and "not acceptable".
He hoped new rapid-antigen testing in Sydney would help take the strain off the state's testing system.
He said the government was examining whether to extend its new $320 "test and isolate" payment to areas outside the suburbs of particular concern in Sydney.
Asked whether the government had erred in allowing Sydney residents to inspect real estate in regional NSW, he said the rules were designed to allow people to move house if they had to.
He said people had broken the rules and a new permit system in place from this weekend would not necessarily stop illegal movement.
"If someone wants to break the rules, they will," Mr Barilaro said.
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