The Queensland government will lock down the southeast, Townsville and two islands for three days after recording two new COVID-19 cases in the community.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says one new case is unlinked and in a clerical worker from the Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane, who has travelled to Magnetic Island in Townsville and the markets in the garrison city.

The premier says because of the woman's extensive travel, the entire southeast, Townsville and two islands will have to be lockdown from 6pm on Tuesday.

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 Palm Island will be subject to the order.

"I want to say to everyone, I know we are in the middle of school holidays, and I know people have made plans, but we have just got to do this," Ms Palaszczuk told reporters on Tuesday.

"We have got to do this for three days, there will be a lockdown for three days, and I don't want it to be 30 days.

Residents on those area will only be allowed to leave home to shop for essential items, exercise, or receive or give medical care until 6pm on Thursday.

Queensland reported another virus case in the community in Tuesday in a miner from Ipswich who was infected at a mine in the Northern Territory.

Two other cases were reported in hotel quarantine.

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Supermarket giant Woolworths has imposed a two-packet limit on toilet paper purchases in its NSW stores amid a COVID-19 lockdown in Greater Sydney and surrounds.

It follows the decision of grocery rival Coles over the weekend to impose the same purchase limit.

Woolworths said in a statement on Monday their decision was based on a spike in demand for the product.

Both grocers have repeatedly emphasised there is no need to panic buy toilet paper amid the COVID-19 outbreak as stock is plentiful and supply chains are not disrupted.

"We have plenty of stock in our supply chain, and our team members will be hard at work making sure it flows into our stores in large volumes for our customers," Woolworths NSW general manager Michael Mackenzie said.

"As always, we encourage our customers to be mindful of others in the community and buy only what they need."

However it seems limits haven't been necessary in all supermarket chains, with no restrictions currently in place at ALDI.

"We do not currently have any product restrictions in place and are working closely with our business partners to ensure that there is plenty of stock available across our stores," a spokesperson for ALDI Australia told AAP.

"We ask shoppers to resist any compulsion to purchase more than they normally would, and to shop with kindness and consideration."

Supermarkets have never closed amid the pandemic and COVID-19, which is a respiratory illness that does not cause intestinal upset.

Flinders University psychology senior lecturer Dan Fassnacht, an expert in compulsive buying, last month said panic buying served as a balm for anxiety amid the pandemic.

He said the behaviour offered the illusion of control.

The Greater Sydney, Central Coast, Blue Mountains, Wollongong and Shellharbour areas will be under stay-at-home provisions for at least 14 days amid the Bondi COVID-19 cluster.

That cluster on Monday afternoon numbered 130 people.

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Schoolteacher Marion Barter appeared happy and content with life before "something happened" in the months before she vanished, a NSW coroner has been told.

The mother-of-two was last seen on June 22, 1997 - the day she flew out of Brisbane for an indefinite trip to England.

But her relatives and police now know she'd already changed her name by deed poll to Florabella Natalia Marion Remakel and would soon slip back into Australia without ever making contact.

Sally Leydon, who has led the charge to find her mother, said her mother's decision to quit her job at The Southport School in the middle of 1997 was "out of character".

Ms Barter had worked at the prestigious school since early 1994 and had appeared to have made friends with colleagues and parents.

"She seemed very happy and content," Ms Leydon told the NSW Coroners Court on Monday.

But in late 1996 or early 1997, Ms Barter began to speak to her daughter about a staff member causing her a lot of grief.

"I felt they got on very well and then something happened," Ms Leydon said.

But she was unsure what that was or even if it was really the catalyst for her mother upending her life.

She accepted "in hindsight" that her mother had not been open about what was going on in her life.

Ms Leydon described her mother as somewhat naive, easily influenced when in love and "the kind of person who didn't like being on her own".

But the loved teacher, who had an "outrageously funny laugh" and wore her heart on her sleeve, hadn't mentioned any new flames before her disappearance, her daughter said.

Ms Barter sold her Southport home, put her possessions in storage and told family she would return in a year or find work in England.

Among her final acts, she helped Ms Leydon and her newly engaged partner Chris book their 1998 wedding in the chapel at The Southport School, never mentioning she wouldn't attend.

A passport in her new name was used on re-entry to Australia on August 2.

Ms Leydon later learned her mother's bank account was used in Byron Bay, travelling there in October 1997 to hand out flyers and alert police to her missing mother.

But the police report was marked "occurrence only" and shelved for 10 years, with the original officer now assuming Ms Leydon hadn't expressed a sense of urgency or an explicit request to file a missing person report.

State Coroner Teresa O'Sullivan is examining whether Ms Barter's disappearance was intentional, why it occurred and whether she is alive or dead.

A two-year police investigation determined in 2011 she was not a missing person but the case has been in the care of the homicide unit since 2019.

NSW Police on Friday announced a $250,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of any person or persons responsible for Marion's disappearance.

The inquest continues.

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South Australia has imposed a range of new local COVID-19 restrictions as the state faces a "significant risk" of local infections amid a growing number of virus cases around the country.

From midnight on Monday masks will be mandatory in high-risk settings, including aged care facilities and hospitals and will be highly recommended on public transport.

A new density arrangement of one person to every two square metres will be enforced in cafes, pubs, restaurants and other licensed venues while private gatherings, including weddings and funerals, will be limited to 150 people.

People consuming food and drink at indoor venues must be seated.

Premier Steven Marshall said it was hoped the new measures would only be required for a week.

But he said the government had to act quickly given the potential for the rapid spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19.

"Given the nature of the rapid spread of the Delta variant we have no option but to take pre-emptive action to keep South Australians safe," the premier said.

"We have to be very vigilant at the moment."

The new measures follow SA's move on Sunday to close its border to Queensland, WA, the NT and the ACT after previously locking out travellers from NSW.

Chief Public Health Officer Nicola Spurrier said all the new restrictions and rules tried to balance the risk to health with the economic and social impacts.

She said the measures were difficult for families, businesses and the wider community but people should not underestimate the seriousness of the current situation.

"This is not just a minimal risk. This is actually a really significant risk," Professor Spurrier said.

"If we get this Delta strain in our community, with the behaviours we have been used to up until this point, we will have a very serious problem that I can't promise we will get on top of.

"So this is trying to prevent a very serious problem happening. We are putting on a reasonably light set of restrictions for a relatively short period of time."

Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said it was better to take early action, than face the prospect of much harsher measures.

"If we sat on our hands and did nothing we'd be here in a week or so time where you'd be criticising us or expressing anger and disappointment on behalf of the community because we didn't take action to stop a full lockdown," Mr Stevens told reporters.

"We're in a much better position now to take proactive steps to slow things down so that we can respond more effectively and possibly minimise the risk of the virus spreading through South Australia."

SA reported no new virus cases on Monday and has just nine active infections, all in returned travellers who are in hotel quarantine.

Checks on all 29 miners who returned recently from the Northern Territory also returned negative results.

The workers were among 900 fly-in-fly-out personnel who recently left the Granites mine, north of Alice Springs, where one person tested positive last week.

Several more cases have now been linked to the mine.

SA Health said the miners remained in isolation, along with their families.

© AAP 2021