The Hunter has recorded its highest daily case load in a month on another day of confusion in NSW's battle against COVID-19.
The region reported 18 cases on Monday, the most since 24 were added to the Hunter tally on August 12.
Hunter New England Health said only two of the new cases were isolating while infectious, eight were infectious in the community and eight were under investigation.
Five of the cases were in Newcastle local government area, five in Lake Macquarie, four in Port Stephens and two in Cessnock.
HNEH public health controller Dr David Durrheim predicted "many more cases" as contacting tracing came under pressure.
"The disturbing trend that we've seen is the fact that many of these cases it's impossible to track back to their source of infection," he said.
"The virus is probably spreading through other chains in the community.
"The outlook hopefully will not be as drastic as we've seen in Sydney, but I think we would be gullible if we didn't think we'd see a larger increase in cases in the Hunter New England region."
HNEH said it would no longer report whether each case was infectious in the community or linked to a previous case.
"Due to the high percentage of infectious people in the community and the geographical spread, our public health advice is that there is no longer a public health benefit to break these down for each individual case and suburb," the health service said in a statement.
The new Hunter cases included two each in Mayfield, Arcadia Vale and Tenambit and one each in Mayfield West, Elermore Vale, Hamilton South, Balcolyn, Blackhalls Park, Boolaroo, Salamander Bay, Nelson Bay, Anna Bay, Soldiers Point, Greta and Weston.
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The latest case count reflected a concerning spike in infections in regions near Sydney.
The Central Coast reported 16 cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Sunday and Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District 27.
The day began with Deputy Premier John Barilaro claiming on Sydney radio that the unvaccinated would have the same freedoms as the vaccinated when the state reached its second target of 80 per cent adult vaccination in early November.
He said businesses would need to turn away the unvaccinated for only "three or four weeks" after NSW hit 70 per cent adult vaccination in mid-October.
The comments flew in the face of government messaging designed to promote vaccination as the "only way out" of the pandemic.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian contradicted her deputy at her restored 11am COVID-19 briefing.
"I don't want people to think they can sit back, let everybody else do the hard work and then turn up at 80 per cent and get everything else that vaccinated people are," she said.
"That's not the right message. If you're not vaccinated, you will not have the same freedoms ... even when we get to 80 per cent."
Fully vaccinated adults can now gather in groups of five in outdoor public places, but not homes, in the Hunter.
The region's vaccination rates vary widely from postcode to postcode.
Merewether, Warners Bay, New Lambton, Wickham, Newcastle East and Salamander Bay have first-dose rates above 80 per cent, while Cessnock, Greta and Windale are languishing below 60 per cent.
NSW has 78.5 per cent of people aged 16 and over vaccinated with at least one dose and 46.2 per cent with two doses.
The state recorded 1257 new cases on Monday and seven deaths.
Hospitals are treating 1189 COVID-19 cases, including 222 people in intensive care and 94 on ventilators.
