Dr David Durrheim said five cases added to the Hunter's tally on Monday showed the virus was "all around us".

"They span from the south of Lake Macquarie all the way up through Newcastle, Maitland, Cessnock, Upper Hunter and the entire Port Stephens peninsula," he said of the 105 active cases.

The new cases at Cardiff, Macquarie Hills, Toronto, Nelson Bay and Chisholm were all active in the community. Twenty-nine of the 41 Hunter cases identified in the past five days have been infectious in the community.

Dr Durrheim said controlling the virus' spread by getting tested for minor symptoms would buy the region time to get vaccinated.

"We really need to make sure we keep suppressing the virus so that we can actually get all of our community protected with two doses of vaccine as it becomes much more readily available over the next couple of weeks."

Between 30 and 40 per cent of adults in the Hunter have had two doses, below the state rate of 40.8 per cent.

A Hunter New England Health spokesperson said in a statement that people should keep checking the vaccine booking system as it was "regularly changing".

"Our bookings available online are in line with our vaccine supply. As that supply increases, so will booking availability online."

Many Hunter people aged 16 to 39 have not secured Pfizer bookings until November and December.

Deputy Premier John Barilaro urged parents to keep checking the website.

"You may have a booking that's later. Keep jumping on the website to see if you can get a new booking," he said.

He said people should also check with their GPs, who receive Pfizer supplies directly from the federal government.

The Chisholm and Cardiff cases are work exposures, the Toronto case is linked to a relative and the Nelson Bay case to a cluster at Shoal Bay. Contact tracers have not linked the case at Macquarie Hills to a known source.

Eight Hunter COVID-19 patients are in hospital and one is in intensive care.

NSW recorded 1281 new cases and five deaths on Monday. The state's hospitals are treating 1071 COVID-19 patients, including 177 in intensive care.

The government will announce on Thursday which regions, if any, will emerge from lockdown on Saturday.

Mr Barilaro said it was too early to say if the Hunter would escape, but Bathurst, which has had no cases for two days, and Orange, which had two new cases on Sunday and Monday, had "very little" hope of being freed.

The new cases across the state included:

A man in his 90s from south-east Sydney died at St George Hospital. He was a resident of St George Aged Care Facility in Bexley and acquired his infection there.

A woman in her 80s from northern Sydney died at Ryde Hospital.

A woman in her 50s from western Sydney died at Westmead Hospital.

A woman in her 80s from western Sydney died at Westmead Hospital.

A man in his 60s from Southern Highlands died at home.

NSW hospitals are treating 1071 COVID-19 patients, including 177 in intensive care and 67 on ventilators.

There have been 131 COVID-19 related deaths in NSW since 16 June 2021, and 187 in total since the start of the pandemic.

There have been 29,253 locally acquired cases reported since June 16, 2021.

Our coverage of the health and safety aspects of this outbreak of COVID-19 in Newcastle and the Hunter, and lockdown rules and changes, is free for anyone to access. However, we depend on subscription revenue to support our journalism. If you are able, please subscribe here. If you are already a subscriber, thank you for your support. You can also sign up for our newsletters for regular updates.

In the news

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: