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Hundreds of NSW police officers will descend on the area where three-year-old William Tyrrell disappeared seven years ago to conduct "high intensity" searches following new evidence.

Detective Chief Superintendent Darren Bennett says the searches will last two to three weeks and some will be "subterranean".

"It's highly likely that if we found something it would be a body," Mr Bennett told reporters on Monday.

"We are looking for the remains of William Tyrrell, there's no doubt about that."

William was last seen wearing a Spider-Man suit in the garden of his foster grandmother's home in Kendall on the mid-north coast in 2014.

Within hours residents and emergency service workers combed the scrub, creeks and paddocks for him.

Police formed the view the disappearance stemmed from human intervention and in March 2019 a coronial inquest was held into William's disappearance.

Mr Bennett said the three locations to be searched in the coming weeks were in the Kendall area and would involve "specialist assistance" from outside the police force.

"I don't know who took William but we are hoping to find out through this investigation," he said.

A $1 million reward remains for information that leads to William being found.

"I am not anticipating a swift end to the investigation by any means," Mr Bennett said.

Homicide detectives in September returned to Kendall on the seventh anniversary of William's disappearance.

Before the news conference, Network Ten tweeted that its Where's William Tyrrell? podcast had been subpoenaed for information.

When asked about whether the subpoena related to the fresh searches for William, Mr Bennett said: "There is a lot of activity in around this, it's all related."

He would not reveal whether there had been a tip-off.

© AAP 2021

South Australia will scale back quarantine requirements and no longer enforce statewide COVID-19 lockdowns from next week.

Premier Steven Marshall made the announcement on Monday in an update on how SA will live with the virus after its borders reopen on November 23.

"We will be very, very significantly reducing the test, trace, isolate and quarantine requirements," he said.

"In the past, we've had to take a pretty heavy-handed approach, quite frankly, because a single case could set off a cluster which would lock down our state.

"As of next Tuesday, we will no longer have the threat of a whole-of-state lockdown."

If someone gets COVID-19, they will still need to isolate for up to 14 days.

But under the changes, close or casual contacts of an infected person won't have to do 14 days unless they are unvaccinated.

The worst scenario for a vaccinated close or casual contact would be a maximum of seven days' quarantine.

This is because fully vaccinated casual contacts only need to isolate until they receive their first negative test result.

SA has also redefined who would be classified as a close or casual contact of an infected person.

A casual contact is now a person who had less than 15 minutes of face-to-face contact with an infectious person where there was a "reasonable risk" of transmission.

Risk is based on their vaccination status, use of masks, whether they were indoors or outdoors and the nature of exposure, such as singing.

SA Chief Public Health Officer Nicola Spurrier said the testing, tracing, isolation and quarantine regime would continue to play a role in controlling outbreaks.

"Our contact tracing team are 'match-ready'," Professor Spurrier said in a statement.

"The team will continue to get in touch with all individuals who have come into contact with a case to inform them if they are a close or casual contact and what is expected of them."

Mr Marshall said the government had made 392 extra beds and treatment spaces available and was recruiting up to 1920 doctors, nurses, ambulance officers and other health staff.

"You will always be able to get the care you need, when you need it," he said.

As of 3pm on Sunday, 85.3 per cent of South Australians had had their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 73.9 per cent were fully vaccinated.

The state is still expected to hit 80 per cent double-jab coverage by November 23.

Meanwhile, SA Police are searching for a woman who absconded from hotel quarantine in Adelaide after arriving from Darwin using a stolen driver's licence.

The woman landed in the capital on Friday and was required to quarantine for a fortnight at a facility in the CBD.

But about 7.45pm on Saturday, she escaped via a fire escape and caught a taxi from a nearby rank.

Police are not sure where the woman is originally from and are treating the matter as a health issue rather than a law enforcement issue.

© AAP 2021

Business groups have welcomed a NSW government plan to roll back a special protection for frontline workers who test positive for COVID-19.

Labor and the unions, however, are calling it harsh, unnecessary, and a "stab in the back" for workers.

Premier Dominic Perrottet on Sunday announced his intention to scrap a COVID-19 provision in the Workers Compensation Act, which creates a presumption that frontline workers who test positive caught the virus at work.

It makes it easier for workers in retail, healthcare, hospitality and other frontline industries to file a workers' compensation claim if they get sick.

"Now that the economy is steadily reopening, we want businesses investing in new staff and higher wages, not inflated insurance bills," Mr Perrottet said.

Peak employer association Ai Group is calling on other parties to back the legislation, which it describes as "timely and sensible".

"To continue to hold employers in some industries automatically responsible for an employee's COVID-19 infection is no longer sustainable," said NSW Ai Group head Helen Waldron.

"It is not fair and defies common sense to assume in those sectors that COVID-19 is overwhelmingly likely to have been caught at work."

Business Council chief executive Jennifer Westacott also backed the changes, saying when case numbers go up it won't always be clear where someone caught the virus.

Removing the presumption recognises that "we have to live alongside the virus".

But getting the amendment through parliament won't be smooth sailing, with Labor and the Greens criticising the plan.

It's a "stab in the back for the tens of thousands of workers fighting COVID", said Opposition industrial relations spokeswoman Sophie Cotsis.

"Mr Perrottet expects a hospital cleaner who fell sick fighting COVID to then have to fight (the public insurer) icare too," she said.

The government said leaving the protection in place could lead to 25,000 extra claims over the next year, forcing insurance premiums up by $950 on average.

All up, COVID-19 claims could cost the workers' compensation system up to $638 million over the coming year, the government said.

But these figures were questioned by Greens MP David Shoebridge, a key proponent of the protection.

"The cost to date has been less than $20 million and the government's initial estimate was that it would be more than $8 billion over four years," he told AAP.

He said if the amendment passes, it would be "next to impossible" for frontline workers to prove they ha picked up the virus at work.

Unions NSW Secretary Mark Morey called on the government to reconsider the "harsh, heartless and unnecessary" change.

"Any savings to government will be tiny but the impact on individual workers will be massive," he said.

Meanwhile, NSW reported 195 new local cases on Sunday.

A Blue Mountains man in his 80s who received two vaccine doses but had underlying conditions died at Nepean Hospital after being infected at Springwood Hospital.

Some 224 people remain in hospital, with 32 in intensive care.

NSW Health will from Monday stop specifying whether new cases were locally acquired or came from overseas in its daily updates.

Since quarantine for international arrivals was ditched at the start of the month, it is harder to determine the origin of each case.

Some 91.1 per cent of people over 16 are fully vaccinated and 94.2 per cent of adults have had their first jab.

In the 12-15 age group, more than 80 per cent have had their first dose and 73.4 per cent both.

© AAP 2021