Hunter New England Health (HNEH) revealed authorities had been testing wastewater in the city to sniff out any viral particles of the coronavirus, but tests had come up clean.

The measure was introduced as an extra precaution when Tamworth hosted the NZ Warriors versus Knights NRL clash on August 29.

HNEH public health physician Dr David Durrheim said Tamworth's sewage has been under scrutiny for three weeks, and will continue to be tested for another two.

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"What's been quite reassuring is we've been doing testing on the sewage in the Tamworth region and we haven't had any detects of virus particles at all, and that's very good," he told the Leader.

"We initiated it the week before the [NRL] game and we've now had two weeks after the game with no COVID-19 viral particle detections."

Dr Durrheim said wastewater testing is a collaborative research project taking place in a number of locations across the sate.

He said results in other places had proved the program "very sensitive" to picking up particles, and he expected even just one COVID-19 case among a population of 50,000 people could be detected.

Despite the good news for locals, Dr Durrheim said coronavirus swab levels were dropping at a concerning rate across the region, and as long as the highways are open, people cannot afford to become complacent.

He said more than two weeks with no confirmed COVID cases linked to the NRL game was a positive sign, but hitting the four week mark would be even better.

Tamworth has not recorded a new case of the coronavirus in five months.

Sewage testing has also been occurring in Moree for the past three weeks, with no traces of COVID-19 found.

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