NT Chief Health Officer Hugh Heggie declared all of regional NSW a hotspot today, joining existing hotspots across Sydney and the regions.

It comes after NSW recorded 172 new locally acquired COVID-19 cases, with 60 of those infectious while they were in the community.

Anyone who arrives in the Northern Territory, who has been in regional New South Wales after 5pm on July 27 must undertake 14 days of mandatory, supervised quarantine at the Alice Springs or Howard Springs quarantine facilities.

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Anyone who has left the areas of regional New South Wales covered by this declaration, before 5pm on July 27 is able to enter into the Northern Territory without having to undertake quarantine.

Mr Heggie said the NT was pre-empting further outbreaks across NSW.

"The significant COVID-19 outbreak in New South Wales continues to grow with high cases numbers being reported," he said.

"The Delta strain of COVID-19 has proven to be more infectious and virulent and we have seen it spread into regional New South Wales through the movement of essential workers or breaches of quarantine and lockdown restrictions.

"We are being pre-emptive in declaring regional New South Wales a hotspot as we do not know where any future cases of COVID-19 may occur in these areas and this poses an unacceptable risk to the health and safety of Territorians."

It comes after Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance Northern Territory (AMSANT) Chief Medical Officer John Boffa told the ABC that the NSW Government approach to the outbreak was a major threat to public health.

"While that continues, we can't trust New South Wales. We can't trust regional New South Wales ... so we have to consider the whole of New South Wales a hot spot," he said.

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