'Sensitive issue': Communities hesitant to call hospitals ahead of ADF arrival

The New South Wales government has said it is working with the community ahead of ADF personnel being deployed to enforce compliance in Sydney regions where residents who fled war-torn areas overseas may reside.

Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said the Defence personnel wouldn't solely be focused on south-west or Western Sydney, where many migrant and refugee communities are based.

"We will be working with multicultural NSW, talking to communities," Commissioner Fuller said.

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"They will be focusing on contact tracing across greater Metro Sydney so you can expect to see them in the Shire, or the Northern Beaches, or the Eastern Suburbs."

However, Premier Gladys Berejiklian admitted it was a "sensitive" situation.

She said the Defence personnel were necessary to help conduct the thousands of necessary compliance checks across the city.

"We have thousands and thousands of close contacts and can't afford to have at least one of them out there in the community in case they have the virus," she said.

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NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard issued another message to Sydney's overseas arrivals, warning that people were "presenting not alive, but dead".

"We are hearing some families, particularly in south-west Sydney and Western Sydney, are staying at home when they have symptoms and not coming out and getting tested," he said.

"Can I say to those families, our government, the NSW government is perhaps not like the government that you have lived under overseas.

"We are here to support you and our health system is here to support you. If you have any symptoms at all, please, come and get tested."

ADF troops are set to be on the ground with police in enforcing compliance with health orders across Sydney on Monday.

While not all have been vaccinated, they will be provided with the appropriate personal protective equipment, Commissioner Fuller said.