At a press conference with regional media organisations on Monday afternoon, Mr Barilaro said the end of lockdown was within reach.

"We are heading into freedom, across the board," he said.

But the "front line defence" against COVID continued to be high vaccination rates.

"Shortly, case numbers themselves will be almost irrelevant and hospitalisations and ICU capacity will be more focused on before we announce any further suppression measures," he said.

"As long as vaccination rates continue to climb higher, that is our front line of defense against cases."

The whole state will come out of lockdown on Monday, October 11, with vaccinated people given access to greater freedoms.

Mr Barilaro said places like the Eurobodalla Shire which had active cases would also come out of lockdown on that date, thanks to high vaccination rates in the area.

"At this stage, the 70 per cent roadmap applies to everybody, which means the whole state is coming out of lockdown on October 11," he said.

"The Eurobodalla Shire and other areas in the South East have very high vaccination rates and are on track to reach the state average at the same time as Sydney."

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Mr Barilaro said there were plans in place for both the regional and metro hospital system, but did not go into specifics.

"The design of our hospital system is not just for Sydney, it's a network and a health system statewide," he said.

"That doesn't mean necessarily someone from Lismore will be treated at Lismore Hospital, you'll be moved to a hospital where there is capacity.

"We've got more air movement available, that's part of the plan, and the ability to move people around where demand outstrips the need, so absolutely, everything's been planned for in both regional and in metro NSW."

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Mr Barilaro warned businesses could only reopen with staff who were fully vaccinated, and they would not be able to serve unvaccinated customers.

"If you want the new level of freedom, it is the vaccination passport which means businesses, and their staff, must be vaccinated," he said.

"We're two weeks out [from October 11] and I'm encouraging businesses to make sure their staff are vaccinated."

Mr Barilaro said more details would be released for businesses this week to guide them through vaccination passports and requirements for people entering their venues.

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Mr Barilaro said at the 70 per cent double vaccinated target, the current regional travel permit rules would apply to Sydneysiders.

"At 70 percent, the current rules will apply so there will be no movement from metro Sydney to the regions, unless authorized," he said.

"At 80 per cent, vaccinated people will be able to travel to the regions, unvaccinated people will not."

Residents in Southern NSW have experienced major delays in announcements of COVID-19 venues of concern, with some taking more than a week to be put on the NSW Health website.

"No one's holding up this information deliberately," Mr Barilaro said.

"It's when the information becomes available if that may be of concern to the community, but at the same time we can't report what we don't know."

Mr Barilaro said announcements were made as NSW Health discovered more information about the movements of people with COVID-19.

"People often come back to us later when they remember extra venues they might not have used the QR code for, or in some cases people have deliberately not told us the truth," he said.

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Mr Barilaro said he expected lockdowns to happen less frequently as the state transitioned to "living with COVID".

"Going on the modelling, we expect case numbers to rise, we expect our level of hospitalizations to rise, we expect some pressure on the ICU units and of course, unfortunately, we may see some deaths," he said.

"Learning to live with COVID means we will have a greater appetite not to lock down areas, even though there may be case numbers an increase in case numbers, especially when there's more vaccinated people.

"The vast changes for the freedoms across the state will kick in on December 1, which is when we believe vaccination will be around for 85 to 90 per cent."

When 80 per cent of the population is fully vaccinated, regional travel will open up.

Mr Barilaro said that was expected to happen at the end of October.

"Regional travel will kick in at 80 per cent, which is roughly the last week of October, but at 70 per cent, which is October 11, metro to regional travel won't be permitted," he said.

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For the purposes of regional travel, Mr Barilaro announced the government had classified the Central Coast, Illawarra, Shellharbour, Blue Mountains as part of greater metro Sydney.

"For the purpose of minimizing regional travel initially, we don't want people in the Central Coast or Illawarra, where there are significant case numbers, traveling into other regions," he said.

"But people in Shellharbour and Wollongong will have no problem travelling inside the region, including to Sydney, it's just that you can't travel beyond those LGAs.

"It's just to be safe and to be sure that we manage any seeding event in regional New South Wales."