Police are investigating if workers at a Sydney tree lopping firm were in breach of COVID-19 health orders when they knocked on doors in Newcastle before some of them tested positive.
Hunter New England Health said on Wednesday that Sau Tree Services had gone "door to door" at "multiple homes in Newcastle and Lake Macquarie" for more than two weeks.
HNEH said multiple Sau staff members had tested positive after the company had been active in the city from August 15 to 31.
"If these folks came to your door, you may well have been exposed to COVID," Hunter public health controller Dr David Durrheim said. "It's very important that you immediately get tested and isolate and call the public health unit to assist us in tracking everywhere they have been."
Lake Macquarie detectives said police had launched an investigation into "potential breaches" of health orders.
They said a man from St Mary's had tested positive to COVID-19 after "undertaking arborist work with several other workers from Sydney" in Lake Macquarie.
The Newcastle Herald has been told that at least three other tree lopping businesses from the Sydney areas of concern have been knocking on doors in Newcastle.
Several residents said they had encountered unmasked tree loppers soliciting business on their doorsteps.
"It feels like the lockdown will never end, and the selfishness and narcissism is astounding," one Kotara mother said after workers knocked on her door last month.
"The rest of us are trying so hard to do the right thing, stay home and limit movement, and then these people ... actively exposed our community."
Charlestown MP Jodie Harrison said she had contacted the government about reports of several tree lopping firms turning up uninvited at houses in the area.
"Door knocking is not an authorised job," she said.
"There needs to be a really, really clear, immediate message to people in Sydney that, unless what they're doing is absolutely essential and needed, don't come here."
Sau Tree Services' most recent business registration included an address in Mount Druitt, one of the western Sydney suburbs classified as an area of concern due to its high case numbers.
Deputy Premier John Barilaro said authorised workers were allowed to leave Sydney, including the local government areas of concern, but the circumstances of the tree lopping business warranted more investigation.
"On that information, I think it's something we need to consider and have a look at," he said.
"People understandably are upset with that scenario. I'm happy to look into it further."
Thursday marks a month in lockdown for the Hunter with no guarantee the region will start opening up until mid-October.
Mr Barilaro said on Wednesday that Sydney and western NSW would remain in lockdown until 70 per cent of adults were fully vaccinated "but for the rest of regional NSW I genuinely do believe on the 10th of September there is an opportunity to lift restrictions".
Asked if regions like the Hunter which still had cases could be freed from lockdown, he said: "We'll make decisions around the Hunter in relation to case numbers as we get closer.
"We continually have cases in the Hunter. We've got cases on the Central Coast.
"That'll all be measured. It comes down to the data that we talk about afterwards: are there known clusters that they are attached to, are they members of families of others who have been infected. All that data's important.
"In the Hunter, my sense is there's no major outbreak in the community, as such, that we've lost control.
"Health will be quite strong on case numbers, and, where there are cases, it could mean that region could be locked down further."
The HNEH district recorded six new cases on Wednesday but removed a Windale case reported on Tuesday after subsequent tests proved negative.
Five of the new cases, at Whitebridge, Catherine Hill Bay, Belmont, Swansea Heads and Jesmond, were infectious in the community.
Ten patients are in hospital and one, an unvaccinated pregnant woman, is in intensive care but not on a ventilator.
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Newcastle MP Sharon Claydon raised the woman's plight in federal Parliament on Wednesday, blaming the Morrison government's vaccine rollout.
"I'm heartbroken by the number of pregnant women who have contacted my office frustrated and anxious because they can't get their vaccine appointment for months, sometimes not until after their due date," she said.
"On the 9th of June 2021, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, in conjunction with the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, issued a statement that recommended pregnant women be routinely offered Pfizer vaccines at any stage of pregnancy.
"Yet there are so many women who cannot secure a vaccine.
"Some are on wait lists at multiple GP clinics and have been denied access to vaccines at walk-in clinics."
"These women are all desperately trying to the right thing to get vaccinated, but they can't."
Dr Durrheim said two of the new cases on the western side of Lake Macquarie had travelled to Sydney for work: one in construction and the other at Parklea prison.
"[The tradesperson] is a very keen surfer and so there's a call-out to the people in the Lake Macquarie beaches area, Swansea, Caves Beach, Swansea Heads, to really not ignore any symptoms at this point that are predictive of COVID," he said.
"It may be the wattles that are causing you to sniffle ... but it may be COVID, so don't ignore those symptoms."
HNEH added fresh exposure sites on Wednesday, including Charlestown Medical and Dental Centre, Raymond Terrace Aldi, Cessnock Coles, Redhead Bakehouse, Cameron Park Caltex and Whitebridge Cellars.
