Most of the New England North West came out of lockdown on Saturday, but the Narrabri Shire was excluded after it recorded a new case of COVID-19 the day before.

But Mr Barilaro believes the risk to the Narrabri community is now minimal, and there is a "good case" for the shire to come out of lockdown.

"The Narrabri case is unique, in that the individual tested in Narrabri was working in a site in Narrabri, had very minimal exposure, and is no longer in the area," he said.

"Last week when we made the decision to bring regions out of lockdown we didn't have that level of intel, I'm confident with the level of intel we have today that there is a good case for Narrabri."

The announcement will be made on Thursday morning, he said.

It comes as fragments of COVID-19 were again detected in the Glen Innes sewage on Wednesday, despite no known cases in the area.

Tamworth has also recorded six consecutive positive sewage tests and no known cases.

But Mr Barilaro said no number of consecutive sewage tests will put the region back into lockdown, however it would take just one positive COVID-19 case in the community for a 14-day stay-at-home order to occur.

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"We've had the Glen Innes sewage surveillance come up for a number of weeks now, so if someone was infected in that community and unwell, definitely in this timeline we would know about it because they would be very unwell and would have to present themselves to Health," he said.

"Sewage surveillance is an important tool but does not necessarily mean there's a case in the community.

"In my mind, if there's already COVID in the sewage, the reality is an exposure has already occurred, so locking down immediately I think is too low of a threshold."

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