Many pubs and restaurants have been counting on the Christmas-New Year period to make up for losses suffered during lockdown.

Family Hotel owner Dylan Oakes said he would proceed with a 'freedom festival' at the Hunter Street venue on Wednesday night.

"I'm going to go ahead with it. The government hasn't told me not to," he said.

"I have to keep running the business. It's one of those things where you are left as the middleman. You hope everyone is doing the right thing by isolating and getting tested."

Mr Oakes said he had not been notified of any positive cases at the pub following the super spreader at a local nightclub.

Like dozens of city pubs and restaurants, the Family is banking on the recent surge in patronage continuing into the new year.

"A lot of the smaller independent pubs are still getting out of their COVID debt," Mr Oakes said.

"Financially it's a time of year when we can make up a lot of that debt. The other thing is everyone has bought up a lot of stock for the silly season and it needs to be sold."

Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the Government was committed to easing restrictions on Wednesday in order to return the state "back to a full life of normality". "We're not about to start backflipping on issues we promised," he said.

But he warned once the unvaccinated are mixing with the vaccinated, [case] numbers would increase.

"That's worrying because that puts pressure on our doctors and nurses and our frontline health system," he said.

Mr Hazzard was scathing about people who refused to get vaccinated.

"It's not fair to health workers that you can be so selfish to think that being unvaccinated is OK," he said.

Business Hunter chief executive Bob Hawes said it would be understandable if businesses and venues chose to continue with patronage restrictions and check in requirements even after they were relaxed on Wednesday.

"The community needs to be patient and respectful of decisions being made by business as the proprietors need to be conscious of risks to both patrons and staff," he said.

"A closure due to an outbreak may mean closure for good in some business cases.

"The next week or so will test our resolve and resilience around learning to live with COVID."

Port Stephens, which has one of the highest concentrations of older people in the country combined with a seasonal influx of holidaymakers, is particularly vulnerable to the latest COVID surge.

"Everyone wants to be with their families at Christmas but ,for the sake of our older residents, we need to proceed with caution," Port Stephens MP Kate Washington said.

"I understand they expected cases to rise once restrictions eased, but we are now dealing with a variant where there is uncertainty about the efficacy of the vaccine. Does that present a risk to our more vulnerable residents? That should be a question in everyone's mind."

The lockout of unvaccinated people will end on Wednesday.

Density limits will be scrapped at venues and masks will no longer be mandatory in shops but will be required on public transport and planes as well as for indoors front-of-house unvaccinated hospitality staff.

Check-ins will only be required in high-risk settings such as hospitals, pubs, clubs and gyms and singing and dancing will be permitted indoors and outdoors for everyone.

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