Trainers from the Maitland, Cessnock, Dungog, Gresford, Newcastle and Central Coast areas will participate in the event on Monday night as well as one from the Mid North Coast and one from Victoria.

Nine races have been listed and will go ahead without an audience.

Maitland MP Jenny Aitchison called on Better Regulation and Innovation Minister Kevin Anderson to cancel the event in a text message and in a formal letter she penned on Friday.

She said the city was working hard to get on top of its COVID-19 outbreak and did not want any setbacks.

"We need to keep people safe and try to get those case numbers down," Ms Aitchison said.

"I've had numerous complaints from people in the community who can't see a consistency with the regulations, and even though it has an exemption, at that site at the moment there is already a concern," Ms Aitchison said.

"We don't want people from all over the state here."

A spokesman for Mr Anderson told The Mercury the government was "constantly monitoring the health advice to ensure that work can continue in a safe manner".

"The NSW Government's number one priority is stopping the spread of the virus while minimising the impact on the economy," he said.

Greyhound racing has been allowed to continue since the pandemic began, as long as it had a COVID-19 safety plan in place, but Lorn Surgery GP Dr Craig Richards said the risk to the community was too great.

"We've got money talking here, that greyhound race could end up contaminating Maitland again and on Tuesday we are going to be running a mass vaccination clinic there - it's ridiculous," Dr Richards said.

"They've got a COVID-19 safety plan but it's putting us at risk for something that is not necessary. There is no justification for this, except money. From a health perspective it is an absolute disaster.

"All we need is seeding again in the local community and here we'll go again with increase case numbers."

The Mercury approached Maitland Greyhound Track line manager Tony Edmunds for comment but he referred the masthead to Greyhound Racing NSW and Greyhound Welfare and Integrity Commission (GWIC), saying all the procedures and protocols came from them.

Greyhound Racing NSW declined to comment and referred The Mercury to GWIC, which in turn referred The Mercury to Greyhound Racing NSW.

The COVID-19 safe plan, which is available on the Greyhound Racing NSW website, says only "essential personnel" can attend and people must sign in with the QR code, wear a face mask, social distance and wash their hands "as frequently as possible".

Temperature checks are compulsory, random COVID-19 testing can occur and anybody with symptoms cannot attend.

From today the number of people allowed on the race track has also been reduced. Only one person can attend if they have up to 3 greyhounds, two people can attend if they have 4 to 6 greyhounds and three people can attend if they have more than 7 greyhounds competing. "

Dr Richards said further spread in Maitland would be another blow to businesses who were already facing an uncertain future after two weeks in lockdown.

"We're at a point where we are likely to push COVID-19 out of Maitland as a whole, and even out of Newcastle, and the government is trying to re-seed it into our community," he said.

"This shows the government is catering for certain interest groups instead of looking after the community as a whole."