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The NRL is investigating if regional venues can host games from round 17 while this weekend's matches in Sydney are to go ahead as scheduled but without crowds.

In a hook-up between club bosses and NRL CEO Andrew Abdo on Monday night, Sydney-based teams were told they would remain in the city during its two-week coronavirus lockdown.

Their round 16 games will proceed as scheduled on the Central Coast, in Penrith, at Bankwest Stadium and at Leichhardt but fans will be locked out.

It's still unclear what size crowd will be able to attend Suncorp Stadium for Brisbane's clash with Cronulla on Sunday, after the Queensland capital was flung into a three-day lockdown on Tuesday.

Options for beyond this weekend were discussed at Tuesday's ARL Commission meeting, with 13 of the 16 clubs now based in lockdown zones.

One option would include keeping Sydney teams training at their home bases while moving their matches to the bush from next week to allow crowds to attend.

"We're working on it, depending on each day's infection rate and where the infection is," ARL Commission Peter V'landys told AAP.

"If it hasn't left Sydney, that is important.

"It would just be the games (being moved) at the moment. It's an option, we're investigating."

The Sydney Roosters have already moved Thursday night's clash with Melbourne to Newcastle, where a crowd of around 15,000 can attend.

The Storm announced on Tuesday that they would return to Melbourne to escape Queensland's COVID-19 scare after seven weeks based on the Sunshine Coast.

With cases of the highly-contagious COVID-19 Delta strain popping up in different states, planning for State of Origin III in a fortnight is also problematic.

No decision on the Origin venue was made at Tuesday's commission meeting, with the NSWRL pushing for Newcastle if the game can't be held in Sydney as scheduled.

Whether it can go ahead there or, potentially in Melbourne or on the Gold Coast, will depend on the virus' spread.

Josh Dugan became the latest player to break the NRL's bubble with the Cronulla centre placed into isolation after visiting a Sydney restaurant.

Dugan was spotted at a Potts Point venue over the weekend, days after players were placed in level-three restrictions by the NRL.

The venue is not considered a place of concern by NSW Health and Dugan is not a close contact of a case, but his visit still contravened NRL guidelines.

He became the eighth NRL player placed into isolation.

Five Canterbury players visited a Bondi pub last Sunday night, just days after the NRL ordered its athletes not to eat out in Sydney's eastern suburbs.

Dylan Napa, Brandon Wakeham, Corey Waddell, Sione Katoa and uncapped youngster Aaron Schoupp have since become close contacts of a case and have been ordered into 14 days of isolation.

Warriors Euan Aitken and Josh Curran will also miss this weekend's game against St George Illawarra after being on the same flight as a confirmed case.

© AAP 2021

An unvaccinated concierge who worked outside a coronavirus ward at a Brisbane hospital and then flew to Townsville for a holiday has helped plunge parts of Queensland into a snap lockdown.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was livid on Tuesday as she told Queenslanders in the southeast, Townsville and nearby Magnetic and Palm islands they would have to stay home from 6pm on Tuesday.

She said the lockdown was unavoidable after two new cases of community transmission, including a casual clerical worker who worked two shifts outside Prince Charles Hospital's COVID ward last week despite not being vaccinated.

On Thursday the 19-year-old and her family left their Sandgate home and went to Brisbane airport where they boarded a flight to Townsville and visited the city's busy Sunday markets and Magnetic Island.

They flew home again Sunday and the woman tested positive on Monday. One of her close friends and two of the four family members she lives with are now sick and awaiting tests.

"I'm absolutely furious about this," the premier told reporters and promised a full investigation.

"Despite the health directives that she should have been vaccinated, she was not."

It's not yet certain if the woman picked up the virus at the hospital, or elsewhere. Authorities are waiting on genomic sequencing to determine if she has the highly-contagious Delta variant, or the Alpha variant.

The second case of community transmission reported on Tuesday was one of the 170 miners who returned to Queensland from a Northern Territory mine where the Delta strain has been circulating.

He is the second from that cohort of 170 workers to test positive but has been isolating since very soon after returning home to Ipswich. He is considered relatively low risk, Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young has said.

Dr Young says the state is now battling coronavirus on four fronts - the miners from the Northern Territory, Virgin Australia flights that arrived in Brisbane and on the Gold Coast with an infected crew member onboard, the cluster linked to the Portuguese Family Centre, and the case involving the hospital worker.

Dr Young said the young woman worked as a concierge in the section of the hospital were COVID patients are treated and she had interaction with two other concierge workers and a cleaner.

Meanwhile, the premier has repeated calls for an immediate, dramatic cut to overseas arrivals saying the are bringing the virus into Australia where it leaks from the hotel quarantine system.

She said that until a large proportion of Queenslanders are vaccinated "we should massively reduce the number of returning Australians".

Only cases of genuine hardship should be allowed in, she said, and while that was a tough call she said the risks of inaction were just too great.

"I know this is going to be tough for a lot of families. I don't want to see people end up in our hospitals on ventilators."

She and Victorian Premier Dan Andrews both raised the issue at national cabinet on Monday and want greater use of the Howard Springs quarantine centre in the Northern Territory.

Mr Andrews said cutting arrivals would be a temporary measure until Australia hits its "magic number" of vaccinations, "... 70 or 80 per cent - and then we could look at it again".

Queenslanders have been told to keep following official health advice after the prime minister announced on Monday that people aged under 60 can get the AstraZeneca vaccine if they are willing to accept the very low risk of an associated blood clotting disorder.

The premier and Dr Young have told people to heed the clinical advice of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, which says anyone aged under 60 should preferentially get Pfizer.

Queensland's partial lockdown begins at 6pm on Tuesday and will lift at 6pm on Friday, unless the situation worsens.

It covers residents of Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan City, Moreton Bay, Redlands, Sunshine Coast, Noosa, Somerset, Lockyer Valley, the Scenic Rim, the Gold Coast, Townsville, Magnetic Island and nearby Palm Island.

Residents in those areas will only be allowed to leave home to shop for essential items, exercise, or receive or give medical care.

© AAP 2021

NSW has recorded 19 new COVID-19 cases as the state government announced new financial support for small businesses hit by the Sydney lockdown.

Businesses will receive thousands of dollars in grants and the NSW Dine and Discover voucher program for state residents will be expanded as part of the package.

"We know that our lockdown ... has created much stress," Premier Gladys Berejiklian said on Tuesday.

"We don't want anyone to feel stressed during this lockdown that they won't be able to manage their household situation or their business situation."

Grants of between $5000 and $10,000 will be available to small businesses, depending on declines in turnover, during the health restrictions.

NSW residents will now have until August 31 to spend their Dine and Discover vouchers, which will also be able to be used on takeaway food orders.

Of the 19 new cases of COVID-19 recorded in NSW in the 24 hours to 8pm on Monday, 17 are linked to previous cases and two are under investigation.

One of the mystery cases lives in the eastern suburbs and the other works there.

Seven of the new cases were in isolation for their infectious period.

Ms Berejiklian praised the around 67,000 people who came forward for testing in the latest 24-hour as "outstanding".

Some 149 people have picked up the coronavirus locally since June 16, when the first case was reported at Bondi in Sydney's east.

Tuesday marks the third full day of a two-week hard lockdown for the Greater Sydney, Central Coast, Blue Mountains, Wollongong and Shellharbour regions.

Millions of people can only leave home for work that can't be done at home, to shop for essentials, for exercise, to seek medical care and for caregiving or compassionate reasons.

NSW Health has issued alerts for another ten venues visited by COVID-19 positive people.

They included Specsavers at Bondi Junction, McDonald's at Bondi Beach, Macquarie Bank in Barangaroo, Domino's Pizza Rose Bay, IGA Blaxland and the Meriton Suites Hotel at Mascot.

NSW Health has also alerted commuters who travelled on various Sydney trains and buses last week and Westfield Bondi Junction - the epicentre of the latest outbreak - remains of particular concern.

Those venues, plus scores more listed by NSW Health, have sent thousands of people into isolation.

More than 500 school students from South Coogee Public School are isolating after four of their classmates acquired the virus.

Another student, at Emanuel School in Randwick Sydney's east, attended school whilst infectious.

On Monday evening, a positive case was also uncovered in the Rose Bay Secondary College community, with around 1300 students and teachers ordered to self-isolate until further notice.

© AAP 2021