More than 94 per cent of Newcastle adults are fully vaccinated, and the rest of the Hunter has steamed past the 95 per cent milestone.
Latest federal Department of Health figures show that 94.2 per cent of those aged 16 and over in the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie local government areas have received two doses, three percentage points above the NSW average.
Lake Macquarie has double-dose vaccination coverage above 95 per cent, but Newcastle is lagging slightly behind at 90.8 per cent, the lowest rate in the region.
Muswellbrook (91.7) and Cessnock (92.9) were also below the regional average, and the Hunter indigenous double-dose rate was 80.3 per cent in the most recently available figures.
Six Hunter LGAs, Dungog, Lake Macquarie, Singleton, Port Stephens, Upper Hunter and Maitland, have double-dose coverage above 95 per cent.
The Department of Health does not report exact percentages for regional vaccination rates once they move past 95 per cent.
Hunter New England Health recorded 54 of the state's 212 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, though only half were in the Hunter.
Fifteen of the cases were in MidCoast Council area, nine in Newcastle, six in Lake Macquarie, four in Maitland and Port Stephens and three in Cessnock.
Maitland's cases all came from Gillieston Heights while Glen Oak contributed all four of the Port Stephens infections.
Twelve of the district's 762 active cases are being treated in hospital, including three in intensive care.
The Hunter double-dose vaccination rates are significantly higher than in parts of Sydney, including the eastern suburbs (81.9), inner south-west (87.5), inner west (86.6), Parramatta (91.1) and the inner-city (77.1), though it is unclear what effect the absence of student and backpacker populations is having on the data in some areas.
The vaccination rates are based on Australian Bureau of Statistics population estimates from 2019, when some suburbs had relatively high student and overseas visitor numbers.
The NSW first-dose rate has shifted only 0.28 percentage points, from 93.92 to 94.20, in a week and at that rate will not reach 95 per cent until about December 5.
The NSW government has delayed the reopening of social and economic activity for unvaccinated people until December 15 or until the state reaches a 95 per cent double-dose target, whichever comes first.
Based on the first-dose rate, whose trajectory continues to slow, NSW will not reach the 95 per cent second-dose mark until after Christmas, if at all.
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