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Four cases of coronavirus from the Omicron variant have been confirmed in NSW after the discovery of two more infected people.

Almost 150 people have arrived in NSW from southern African countries where the new Omicron COVID-19 variant is running rampant, with four cases now confirmed.

The two new cases arrived on a Singapore Airlines flight from southern Africa on Sunday, and every other person who was on that flight is now a close contact who needs to get tested and isolate for 14 days immediately.

Both of the newly confirmed cases are fully vaccinated and are now in special health accommodation.

Genomic testing on Sunday confirmed two overseas travellers who arrived in Sydney had been infected with the new coronavirus variant.

Both passengers were asymptomatic when they arrived on Saturday night and are in isolation in the Special Health Accommodation. Both are fully vaccinated.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said 141 people have come to the state from the nine countries of concern over the past 24 hours, and all have been sent to hotel quarantine for 14 days.

Although he has ordered all international arrivals to quarantine at home for 72 hours, Mr Perrottet insisted the NSW international and state borders would remain open.

The three-day quarantine order is on top of a federal government requirement for travellers to enter quarantine for two weeks if they have been in South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia, Eswatini, Malawi or the Seychelles in the past 14 days.

"Ultimately we need to open up to the world (and) we need to do so safely," he told reporters on Monday.

"We don't need to have a knee-jerk reaction, we need to have a proportionate and balanced response to the situation that's in front of us."

"The responses should not be 'Let's shut down'."

Mr Perrottet also stressed NSW was better equipped to confront new variants.

"We've got to learn to live alongside the variants of the virus that come our way," he said.

"And the vaccination rate here is one of the highest in the world.

"That is not the case in the southern African nations."

The premier has said there are no plans to adjust the state's reopening roadmap, which has restrictions easing for the unvaccinated on December 15.

However, restrictions will be tailored in response to the variant if needed, he said.

Meanwhile, the state added 150 new infections to its caseload on Monday.

For the fifth consecutive day, no new deaths were reported.

Hospitals are treating 170 patients, five more than the previous day, including 25 people in intensive care. Ten require ventilation.

NSW is 94.5 per cent single-dosed for everyone 16 and over, while 92.4 per cent are fully vaccinated.

Of 12- to 15-year-olds, 81.3 per cent have received one jab and 76.5 per cent both.

© AAP 2021

Queensland plans to "proceed" with reopening its borders, but is keeping an eye on the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says its too early to know if the variant will impact plans to scrap quarantine for vaccinated domestic arrivals once it hits 80 per cent vaccination target.

"At this stage the plan is still to proceed," she told reporters on Monday.

The premier sidestepped a question about what could derail the plan.

But she said more information about Omicron would be shared at Tuesday's national cabinet meeting.

"Let me have a look at the report first, but as I said, we're in a good position because we have mandatory hotel quarantine," Ms Palaszczuk said.

It was unclear how many travellers from southern Africa were in Queensland, the premier said, but they would be in mandatory hotel quarantine.

"So if there is anything, it'll be detected in hotel quarantine," she said.

"I am a bit worried about how many people are in Australia at the moment that are not in hotel quarantine, so I'd like some answers on that tomorrow."

The premier wouldn't say if NSW and Victoria, which have ordered international arrivals to isolate for 72 hours, should reinstate hotel quarantine.

However, she said the emergence of Omicron vindicated her quarantine facility at Wellcamp, which has been criticised as a "white elephant".

"One of our best defences in this pandemic has been the use of our hotel quarantine, that's been a model that has been used around the world," Ms Palaszczuk said.

"Let me get the information first, but I'm very thankful that Queensland still is using mandatory hotel quarantine for international arrivals, especially now we've seen a new variant and we don't know what that variance means."

Queensland recorded no new local cases on Monday morning, but five new cases emerged in hotel quarantine after 6980 tests were conducted in the previous 24 hours.

Deputy Premier Steven Miles said the five cases were one family who had travelled to the state through Pakistan.

After quarantine is scrapped for fully vaccinated domestic travellers, it will be scrapped for vaccinated international travellers once 90 per cent of Queenslanders are vaccinated.

Unvaccinated people will also be banned from all state venues such as restaurants, bars, pubs, clubs, theatres, cinemas and sporting venues from December 17.

Vaccines are already mandatory for health workers, aged care workers and police, with Mr Miles saying there could be mandates.

"Extending mandates to staff in groups is something that we've said we'll consider and continue to discuss," the deputy premier said.

"Right now, we are seeing a big uplift driven by those 17 December (sic) freedoms, people wanting to get access to those rewards for getting vaccinated, and that is driving our vaccination rate up.

"We'll obviously continue to monitor that, continue to take advice about what the most appropriate measures are."

Education Minister Grace Grace said a vaccine mandate was being considered for the education and childcare sectors.

She said there was still time to mull a decision given schools will break for the year before restrictions ease.

"So it's still under active consideration and we have to make an announcement fairly soon," she told reporters.

"But there's plenty of time; school breaks up for the summer on the 10th of December."

The latest figures show 76.08 per cent of Queenslanders are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and 86.27 per cent have had one dose.

© AAP 2021

Investigators believe the key to how Belgian teenager Theo Hayez vanished lies with what happened at 1.02am at a northern NSW beach on June 1, 2019.

After midnight, Theo used his phone to swap messages with his stepsister Emma, watch clips from a French quiz show, and joke with a friend on Facebook about an upcoming U2 concert.

But just after 1am, his phone stopped receiving data.

An inquest into the 18-year-old backpacker's disappearance at Byron Bay has heard police believe he clambered up the beachside cliffs, dropped his phone, then fell and was swept out to sea.

His family, who have travelled to Byron Bay from Europe for his two-week inquest in the NSW Coroners Court, don't accept their cautious boy would do something so dangerous in the dark.

They say the only way he would climb the cliffs is if someone was with him, reassuring him it was safe.

Whether Theo encountered anybody else that night is one of the major mysteries the inquest will explore.

Another is how he came to be on the Cosy Corner beach in the dark.

Theo's night began at his hostel, where he shared some 'goon' wine with fellow backpackers before heading into town about 9pm.

At the Cheeky Monkey's bar, the group discussed European politics as they drank a few beers.

CCTV footage played at the inquest shows Theo occasionally stumbling. A security guard who thought he was swaying ejected him about 11pm.

However, the evidence he was actually intoxicated was "ambiguous", counsel assisting the inquest Kirsten Edwards said on Monday.

The decision to kick him out on his own without any chance to tell his friends has caused Theo's family "great distress", Ms Edwards told the inquest.

Theo then looked up directions to his hostel on Google Maps.

His subsequent decisions would be hard to believe if investigators didn't have Google data obtained by his family, Ms Edwards said.

Theo walked in the opposite direction to the route outlined on Google Maps. For seven minutes, he stopped at some cricket nets.

Next he took a dark track through bushland towards the ocean, at points appearing to walk quickly or run.

At the urging of locals and police, coroner Teresa O'Sullivan walked the Milne Track one night last year.

Police have noted it would be strange for a foreigner to walk the frightening and "spooky" track alone at night - giving rise to theories that Theo was with someone else.

He turned off the track into steep, dense bushland and ended up on the beach.

He was at Cosy Corner when he appears to have turned off his location services just after midnight to save battery.

His lighthearted messages sent in the next hour suggested he felt safe, Ms Edwards said.

At 12.55am, he sent a message to his sister.

Then "something happened at 1.02am", Ms Edwards said.

"If we knew what that was, we think we probably would know what happened to Theo."

That's when his phone stopped receiving data.

At 6.17am, it re-entered reception range and continued to receive data until lunchtime that day - indicating it did not fall into the water.

The phone has never been found.

Ms Edwards said the legal team had struggled to get data from Google, Facebook and Telstra to paint a fuller picture of that evening - in particular, whether anyone else was with Theo.

The inquest continues.

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© AAP 2021