Gladys Berejiklian says cutting Newcastle's COVID-19 cases to zero is "achievable" as the Hunter tries to avoid joining Sydney in what looks destined to become a five-month lockdown.
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The Premier, joining her deputy, John Barilaro, on Tuesday in a new daily media conference with regional journalists, said the Hunter's case numbers had been "very concerning but have settled down a bit today".
The Hunter recorded 10 new cases on Tuesday after reporting nine and 16 on Sunday and Monday.
NSW recorded 452 new cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Monday, most of them in west and south-west Sydney.
Ms Berejiklian said at Tuesday's statewide COVID update that the NSW case numbers were likely to rise "substantially" in the next two or three weeks.
It appears the government is losing hope of eliminating the virus in at least parts of Sydney, which has been in lockdown for eight weeks.
Canterbury-Bankstown local government area has tallied 1500 cases in the past month, Cumberland 981, Blacktown 734, Fairfield 692 and Liverpool 519.
The Hunter has recorded 130 in the past two weeks after joining Sydney in lockdown, but its case numbers have levelled off since Friday.
Ms Berejiklian said September and October would be "our most difficult months" before vaccination targets of 70 per cent in late October and 80 per cent in mid-November triggered an easing of restrictions.
She would not speculate on how long lockdowns could last but said the government was "really keen to mop up what's occurring" in the Hunter.
"We're really keen to get those numbers back down to zero, which is achievable given where they are," she said.
A new state breakdown of vaccination rates by postcode shows, unsurprisingly, that Hunter towns and suburbs with older populations, including Port Stephens and central Newcastle, have more people immunised.
Single-dose vaccination rates exceed 60 per cent in Salamander Bay, Merewether and Warners Bay but are below 40 per cent around Cessnock, Kurri Kurri, Shortland and West Wallsend.
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More than 52 per cent of the NSW population aged 15 and over has received one dose and 27 per cent has received both.
Half of Newcastle and Lake Macquarie aged 15 and over has received a single dose and 25 per cent is fully immunised.
The rest of the Hunter has the state's second lowest rate of fully vaccinated people at 21.3 per cent.
Of the 10 new Hunter cases, five were in Maitland, three in Lake Macquarie and two in Newcastle.
One of the 10 was a mystery case with no known links to previous cases. Six were infectious in the community.
Hunter New England Health public health controller Dr David Durrheim said most of the region's cases were in children, teenagers and young adults.
"Clearly the delta strain is finding these young people, so young people should be on alert," he said. "Don't ignore any symptoms."
HNEH listed two new exposure sites on Tuesday, Nutrition Warehouse at Kotara on August 8 from 11.15 to 11.30am and Star Nails at Cameron Park on August 4 from 4.30 to 5.30pm.
Woolworths has advised customers that it found out on Sunday that a worker at its Raymond Terrace North store had tested positive.
The company said the employee's last shift had been on the morning of August 9.
NSW Health has not yet identified the store as a venue of concern.
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