St George Illawarra players Zac Lomax and Daniel Alvaro are facing the likelihood of a month on the sidelines as the NRL vows tough penalties for anyone who breaks their Queensland bubble.

Lomax and Alvaro remain the only two players yet to sign a sworn statement to the NRL about the details of Paul Vaughan's barbecue, including that they did not come into contact with any outsiders.

The NRL is refusing to let the pair out of their COVID-hold until Saturday unless they do so, meaning they will not be able to fly north with other players on Wednesday.

Even if they were to fly out on Sunday, the pair would then have to quarantine separately to the rest of the Dragons and then be unable to train or play with them.

It means the star centre and middle forward would realistically not be able to return until round 21 at the absolute earliest.

"There will need to be a mechanism for them, like any other player that would enter that bubble to quarantine before they rejoin the bubble," NRL CEO Andrew Abdo said.

"You don't want to restart a 14-day quarantine period by putting more people into it, you have to house them in a separate facility.

"It's a matter for the club, and, and for us down the track on what if any opportunity may arise to get them and other players into the bubble at a later stage."

The pair are not in St George Illawarra's bubble, with Lomax's brother Hayden unable to join as a development player given he lives with Zac.

The remainder of the Dragons' dirty dozen have returned to training, and the club received a boost on Monday with the signing of Warriors forward Jamayne Taunoa-Brown.

The prop will then be released back to the Warriors once the Dragons' bans are complete.

It comes amid questions over player behaviour in the bubble, with 12 NSW and ACT-based teams set for Queensland.

Twenty players have breached the game's bubble since the start of the Sydney outbreak last month, including Jai Arrow just days after the Dragons incident.

Each club will have one COVID-cop to ensure there are no breaches, with Abdo warning anyone who risks the competition in Queensland will be hit hard.

Queensland Premier Annastasia Palaszczuk also warned on Monday that police would monitor the team hotels.

"If someone steps on the line and breaches this in quarantine there'll be significant implications," Abdo said.

"Not just for them from a disciplinary perspective, but for the quarantine process, and essentially, the system, we're putting in place.

"I think everyone gets it. And it's very clear what the expectation is."

© AAP 2021

The NRL is eyeing off double and triple-headers as it navigates the logistical nightmare of moving the vast majority of the competition to Queensland.

Plans for shifting 12 clubs from NSW and ACT for at least a month were being finalised on Monday, with league bosses realistic that the rest of the season could be played out in the hub.

Clubs were also feeling the pinch, with key support staff missing out with just 11 spots in most bubbles for non-players after having almost double as many last year.

But the biggest challenge for the NRL remains organising the 500 bubble inhabitants.

Penrith, Manly, Newcastle and Sydney Roosters are bound for Sunshine Coast, Canterbury, Canberra, South Sydney, Parramatta and the Warriors will be on the Gold Coast while Cronulla, St George Illawarra and Wests Tigers are Brisbane based.

Players and staff will remain in quarantine in those hubs for two weeks while training and playing, with extra freedoms likely to follow.

Families are also expected to fly up within the week and join players after their own quarantine period.

The NRL also remains hopeful there will be crowds at all games during that period, as negotiations continue with the Queensland Government.

"We're going to put a proposal to the Queensland Government on a way for us to safely secure the players and the environment," NRL boss Andrew Abdo said.

"We are very experienced around clean and dirty zones and different levels of protocols. So there is a possibility of us moving to crowds very quickly.

"After around about a two-week period, we will then start looking at opportunities to play double headers and triple headers."

The NRL must also negotiate to have Origin players rejoin their club bubbles after Wednesday, but is confident it will be able to do so.

The implications of the shift were felt far and wide, with Canberra officials still in shock they had been moved despite no cases in the ACT for 367 days.

It's believed Victoria closing their border to the ACT forced the move, but Canberra officials are still hopeful players could travel between ACT and Queensland.

New Zealand fans were again hit, with the Warriors calling off their long-awaited homecoming against Canterbury in round 22.

A first grand final in Brisbane is also not out of the question, with Abdo unwilling to put a number on what would allow a return to Sydney after 112 COVID-19 cases were on Monday.

"We're committing for a four-week period. Will it be longer than that? It's possible," Abdo said.

"It is somewhat linked to obviously the infection rate, it's also linked to restrictions.

"And it's also linked to exemptions that we might be able to obtain from other state governments too.

"We also need to consider the opportunity cost of not being able to have crowds or potential disruption."

What will change is how clubs operate off the field.

Some will have to share doctors and even analysts or sports scientists, with 30 of the 41 spots in most club's bubbles to be taken up by players.

Most clubs have a head coach, three assistants, two physios, a football manager, gear steward as well as strength and conditioning coaches and on-field trainers with the required qualifications.

© AAP 2021

The NSW premier says Sydney's lockdown ending as scheduled on Friday is "almost impossible", with the state recording its highest number of daily COVID-19 infections of the current outbreak.

NSW recorded 112 new local COVID-19 cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Sunday, at least 46 of which were out in the community for part or all of their infectious period.

"Where the numbers are, it is not likely - in fact, almost impossible - for us to get out of lockdown on Friday," Premier Gladys Berejiklian said on Monday.

"Family or close friends, unfortunately, bear the brunt of those 112 (cases) we have seen overnight.

"If you put yourself at risk, you're putting your entire family - and that means extended family, as well as your closest friends and associates - at risk."

Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said she was "in two minds" about whether Monday's case numbers marked a peak in the outbreak.

"If I can find all the cases out there today through really, really high testing, that is actually a win," Dr Chant said.

"If we are getting to people really early when they are just turning infectious then they have probably had that chance of not infecting it further and if we can contain the family unit we can stop the spread."

NSW has recorded almost 680 COVID-19 cases in the community since June 16, when the Bondi cluster first emerged. There are 18 COVID-19 patients in NSW in intensive care, with four ventilated.

Australia on Sunday reported its first COVID-19 death of 2021 - a 90-year-old southwest Sydney woman believed to be unvaccinated. The woman was a close contact of another locally acquired case.

Ms Berejiklian said the government would further ramp up its vaccination drive, with the AstraZeneca jab to be made available to all people aged over 40 at NSW mass vaccination clinics.

All NSW pharmacies will also be able to dole out the AstraZeneca jab to over-40s.

A new mass vaccination hub will also be established at Fairfield in southwest Sydney, where local COVID-19 transmission remains a significant concern.

Aged care workers and more than 10,000 teachers in the Fairfield, Canterbury-Bankstown and Liverpool local government areas will be prioritised for vaccinations.

"Over half our workforce are eligible for the vaccine, and now teachers in areas of concern for COVID-19 transmission have priority access," said Education Minister Sarah Mitchell.

The federal government will also administer a health support package involving personal protective equipment from the national stockpile.

NSW Health late on Monday advised of multiple new close contact exposure sites in Fairfield, Belmore and Roselands, including a medical centre.

The state and federal governments, meanwhile, continue to nut out additional financial aid for businesses as the Greater Sydney lockdown drags on, although an announcement will not be made on Monday.

The state government has already committed $1.4 billion for businesses and is reportedly keen to establish a NSW-funded JobKeeper-style program. An announcement on the program is imminent, Ms Berejiklian said.

A "graphic" COVID-19 advertisement has also begun airing on Sydney television screens to highlight the seriousness of the disease. In the ad, a young woman in a hospital bed gasps for air.

Meanwhile, the NSW Education department is shipping 7000 laptops and 5000 dongles to more than a thousand schools across the state for students about to start term three by online learning due to the lockdown.

Last year, the department shipped more than 13,000 devices and 8000 dongles to support students learning from home.

Some 105 infringement notices were issued by NSW Police on Sunday.

© AAP 2021

One high ranking Queensland bikie has flagged his intention to fight a murder charge after eight bikies had their cases mentioned in court over the gunning down of alleged gang defector Shane Bowden.

Bowden, 47, was gunned down in the driveway of a residence at Pimpama last October.

A total of 21 rounds were fired, 19 from a machine pistol and two from a shotgun, before the offenders ran back to a waiting silver commodore and fled, police allege.

Multiple arrests were made over the weekend including Ian Ronald Crowden, 46, identified as the president of the Brisbane West chapter of the Mongols bikies.

Another seven were charged on Sunday, named as Junior Jasmine Torope, 29, Joshua James Small, 29, James Winston Mau'u 23, Haydn Thomas Forbes, 25, David Steven Meatuai, 41, Fidel Gunes, 29 and Peter Michael Cummins 35.

All face murder charges but none were present when their cases were briefly mentioned in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Monday.

They will stay in custody after their matters were adjourned to August 2 for committal mention.

Gold Coast criminal lawyer Michael Gatenby is representing all the accused and said he would be "very surprised" if a murder charge stuck for the bulk of them given the prima facie case.

He said he already had instructions from Crowden to contest the charge.

"It seems that some of the charges are quite spurious, some people have almost no involvement in the alleged offending, some people have done some things on the crown case very early in time and a couple people have done some things allegedly after it's occurred," he said outside the court on Monday.

He said a number of applications would be made for bail.

Detectives said on July 1 they were confident the Mongols orchestrated the execution of Bowden, as he sat in his BMW.

The state's homicide and gangs squads along with other specialist officers raided properties at Pimpama, Redland Bay, Underwood, Upper Coomera, Helensvale and Wanora on Sunday.

The raids follow an offer of protection from prosecution on top of $250,000 for information to solve Bowden's death for anyone not directly involved.

He was initially a member of the Finks criminal bikie gang, part of its "terror team" jailed over the Gold Coast's so-called ballroom blitz brawl in which three people were shot and two stabbed in 2006.

After his release, it's understood he defected to the Mongols but was booted out and rejoined the Finks just before he was shot.

© AAP 2021