How Sydney could become a city SPLIT in two with wildly different rules ...

A huge overhaul to Sydney's coronavirus restrictions could see the city's south-west plunged into an even harder lockdown, while areas with few new cases may see rules relaxed.

The plan threatens to tear the city apart, after mask-less walkers were seen enjoying winter sunshine on the eastern beaches while those in the Covid-ravaged south-west are under tight police surveillance.

Some locals in the hotspot areas, Fairfield, Liverpool and Canterbury-Bankstown, have been accused by government sources of lying about their whereabouts when called by contact tracers and continuing to work by doing cash-in-hand jobs. 

Of the 124 new cases on Thursday, 54 lived in the south-west while 40 were from western Sydney. with 18 from the city and eight from the south-east.

The huge discrepancy in local infections has lead some officials to consider placing the three south-west LGAs into a heightened lockdown, sources say, which could see more police patrols or the further tightening of travel rules.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said on Thursday that the number of new infections over the weekend will determine how restrictions in the city and surrounding regions will change after July 30, when they're currently set to end.

Discussions about how restrictions may be changed to further lock down the south-west and ease pressure on areas with few cases will begin next week, The Australian reported.

Areas pegged for eased restrictions in the overhaul include the Northern Beaches, Shellharbour and the Central Coast, which have both seen too few case numbers to warrant stay-home orders. 

Shellharbour especially has not had a single case since June, but residents still face the same stay-home orders as those living in the heart of Sydney.

Kiama MP Gareth Ward urged NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard on Thursday to rethink restrictions for the south coast.

'It is totally unreasonable to keep the people of the Shellharbour LGA in lockdown. If circumstances change, restrictions could be reconsidered,' Mr Ward wrote. 

But health officials are said to be deeply concerned that the daily infection rates aren't going down in the south-west of the city, and that the number of infected people out in the community is steadily on the rise. 

As it stands, five million residents of Greater Sydney are not allowed to leave their homes except to shop for groceries, go to work, meet up with one other person outside, see the GP or care for someone. 

Residents have already endured almost four weeks of what was supposed to be a one week lockdown, but the city has continued to record high case numbers every day. 

Despite rules dictating outdoor exercise can be done with one other person, far larger crowds have been seen hanging out in Sydney's east - where the outbreak first began on June 16 with an infected airport driver from Bondi. 

While those in the city's eastern suburbs were seen out enjoying the beach on a sun-drenched Thursday, the situation in the south-west is dire.

Residents of Fairfield, Canterbury-Bankstown and Liverpool are already banned from leaving their LGAs entirely unless they are authorised workers.

Even then, they have to present a negative Covid test every three days, which has seen hour-long queues at testing centres.  

The south-west has already been subject to tougher restrictions than the rest of the city due to a disproportionate number of cases recorded in those areas.

But it could face an even tighter lockdown after this weekend with allegations some people have been untruthful about their movements when speaking with contact tracers - stymieing the effort to release accurate exposure sites, resulting in high case numbers.

Others have allegedly been working for cash or hiding information from authorities, sources claimed.

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At a press conference on Thursday, NSW Executive Director Health Protection Dr Jeremy McAnulty called for higher levels of testing in south-west and western Sydney. 

Areas singled out for a testing drive were Toongabbie, Mount Druitt, Rooty Hill, Fairfield, Liverpool and Bankstown as well as in high-risk areas across the city's south, including Narwee and the Georges River and Bayside LGAs.

Fairfield continues to record the highest number of cases of any local government area - with health officials finding 30 Covid-19 infections in the region in the last day alone. 

Dr McAnulty said of the new cases, 23 were found in the Cumberland LGA, 21 in Canterbury-Bankstown, 12 in Blacktown and 11 in Liverpool.  

Meanwhile, people at Bronte Beach in the city's east swarmed to the beach to soak up the sun, in stark contrast to the sparse and masked-up shoppers in the south-west epicentre.

Rugged up in coats and

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