MORE than 220,000 tests for COVID-19 have been done in the region since the pandemic hit the Hunter, but testing numbers have now slumped to "inadequate" levels, a public health expert warns.
More than 78,000 COVID swabs were done within the Newcastle Local Government Area since the region's first confirmed case on March 9.
In Lake Macquarie, there were almost 79,000 tests carried out, in Maitland, there were more than 35,000, and in Port Stephens, there were 26,614.
But testing numbers have dropped from a peak of about 10,000 in Newcastle in August, to less than 2000 last week.
"It probably indicates that testing levels are rather inadequate at the moment to give us that full assurance we are not missing any virus, or that if virus was introduced, that it would be immediately detected from the human testing data," Hunter New England Health public health physician, Dr David Durrheim, said.
"The figures we have currently are as low as they were back in April."
Dr Durrheim said the "massive drop" was partly due to the lack of cold viruses circulating at the moment.
"But some of it is also that there must be some complacency among all of us in that we haven't seen cases here for so long," he said.
"What we have seen in the testing data is that when we have had a confirmed local case, everyone storms the testing centres, which is good. But I feel that we are fortunate we have sewage surveillance in place as well."
Dr Durrheim said the sewage surveillance system had proven to be a "very sensitive" back up, detecting one case in 30,000 people in the Hunter at a time there had been known cases.
"I'm thrilled we have something else in addition to the usual swabbing surveillance," Dr Durrheim said.
"It signalled when we had those two small family clusters in the Burwood Beach collection, which is very reassuring. Any detect would prompt a major testing drive."
Dr Durrheim said with the border opening up between Victoria and NSW, there would be a "large scale movement of people" travelling interstate.
"We know flights will start again - both Virgin and Jetstar direct to Newcastle from Melbourne from the 23rd, so we really need to be sure we don't ignore any symptoms and get ourselves tested," he said. "There are still those mystery cases. We are not free of the virus just yet."
Dr Durrheim said the key to unlocking some semblance of our pre-COVID lives would be a safe and effective vaccine, which could be available by March.
He called Pfizer's announcement this week that it's COVID-19 vaccine was more than 90 per cent effective "encouraging and impressive early news".
"We need them to complete the full effectiveness and safety study to confirm this promising effectiveness and safety profile of this innovative mRNA vaccine," he said. "We also need more detail as to whether the vaccine prevents both mild and severe disease."
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