Rural Doctors Association of Australia chief executive officer Peta Rutherford said members were "a little bit nervous" about people from outside their communities coming in, and "potentially bringing COVID into the community".

NSW reached the 70 per cent double-dose vaccination threshold this week, triggering its move to ease a range of restrictions for fully vaccinated people from Monday.

The state is also on track to reach the 80 per cent double-dose milestone by the end of the month, at which time travel between Sydney and regional areas will be permissible once more, under the state government's three-stage reopening.

Ahead of the first stage of reopening, Mrs Rutherford said the threat of COVID did not disappear when the state as a whole achieved a vaccination target.

Being double-dosed reduced a person's chances of getting critically ill, requiring intensive care, or of "the worst-case scenario which is so sad, suffering a death", but it did not mean they could not contract COVID or transmit it to others, she said.

"So when people who are vaccinated start moving around, we are anticipating that we will see cases emerge in our communities where maybe they haven't had cases before," she said.

"And certainly we're expecting case numbers to go up, as people start to move about.

"So we're a little bit wary in relation to opening up once the state hits the target, but that doesn't necessarily mean that our rural and remote communities have hit the target, and that provides an additional risk."

The CEO said until there were consistent rates of vaccination across LGAs, "we need to be wary of encouraging too much regional travel".

While figures released on Monday showed 73.4 per cent of the population in Dubbo Regional Council was fully vaccinated, nine local government areas in Western NSW Local Health District were yet to reach the 70 per cent mark.

"...if you've got a community of 5000 people, if you're at even 80 per cent, that's 1000 people who haven't been vaccinated," Mrs Rutherford said.

"Even if 10 per cent of those unvaccinated people contracted COVID, 100 patients that potentially may require access to health care, that's a significant pressure on a small rural hospital."

Mrs Rutherford said people should immediately get vaccinated.

"...if we've got the protection of the vaccinations in high numbers across these communities, that will certainly reduce the pressures on our health services."

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