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Darwin and surrounding areas have been placed in lockdown for 48 hours following five new COVID-19 cases linked to a central Australian mine.

None were locally transmitted but Chief Minister Michael Gunner says the outbreak represents the Northern Territory's biggest crisis since the beginning of the pandemic.

He says the cases are likely to involve the highly contagious Delta variant and more infections are expected.

The lockdown started at 1pm on Sunday following revelations 900 workers left Newmont's Granites Mine, which is 540km northwest of Alice Springs, where a man tested positive then flew to Brisbane, Perth and Alice Springs.

About 400 fly-in-fly-out workers travelled to Brisbane, with another 250 heading to Perth.

Of 244 potentially exposed people who remained in the NT, Mr Gunner said 15 who arrived in Darwin since Friday remain unaccounted for.

As a result, there was a need to "assume the worst, assume they are positive and assume that there are exposure sites".

Mr Gunner says one of the five detected positive cases had travelled to NSW and was being managed by authorities there.

Another positive case has been identified in Queensland.

Two from the cohort are isolating at the mine in the Tanami Desert but would be evacuated to the Territory's Centre for National Resilience at Howard Springs.

The fifth case was one of the mine worker's close contacts who lives in Palmerston, south of Darwin. He tested positive to COVID-19 while in the Howard Springs centre.

Mr Gunner stressed that the cases were not considered community transmissions.

He said the Palmerston case involved a 64-year-old employee of the mine who had travel by plane to Darwin on Friday.

He was picked up by his wife and went straight home to Palmerston.

His only other travel was to collect his adult daughter from her workplace and he did not leave the car. His wife and daughter had no additional movements.

When interviewed on Saturday, the man told contact tracers he was isolating at home with his wife and daughter and had developed symptoms.

From there, he was immediately tested and taken to the Centre for National Resilience.

Mr Gunner said two contacts of the original mine case were still to be located.

"We are urgently tracking them down but again ... we are assuming the worst.

"Everything we see points to this being the highly infectious Delta variant," he added.

"We are expecting more cases and we are not expecting them to be as clear as ... this morning.

"There is a stronger chance that any new cases will have exposure sites which makes the job of tracing and testing much bigger."

Darwin, Palmerston and Litchfield local government areas have entered full lockdown for 48 hours, with anyone leaving their home required to wear a face mask.

Residents are only permitted to leave home for medical treatment, to obtain essential goods and services, for work considered essential, one hour of exercise a day or to provide care.

As the lockdown approached, queues quickly formed at supermarkets and petrol stations across Darwin as shoppers tried to buy supplies, with many complaining there were no masks to buy.

© AAP 2021

Premier Gladys Berejiklian says she has no regrets about her government's unsuccessful bid to keep Greater Sydney out of lockdown, with NSW recording its highest number of new local COVID-19 cases so far this year.

The state's Labor opposition has meanwhile implored her to ensure emergency payments and worker assistance are rolled out quickly.

NSW recorded 30 new locally-acquired virus cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Saturday, with Greater Sydney, Central Coast, Blue Mountains, Wollongong and Shellharbour enduring the first of 14 days in lockdown.

All have been linked to the Bondi outbreak and 11 of them were self-isolating throughout their infectious period.

NSW had not recorded 30 new locally-acquired cases of COVID-19 since December, amid the Northern Beaches outbreak.

The new infections bring the Bondi outbreak to date to 110 people.

Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said 10 of Sunday's new cases were linked to Great Ocean Foods in Marrickville, bringing that cluster to 11.

One case linked to the seafood distributor is a domestic flight crew attendant with Virgin Australia who tested positive on Saturday night.

Ms Berejiklian said on Sunday she expected local case numbers to increase in the coming days, given the contagiousness of the Delta virus variant.

When asked if she delayed calling a citywide lockdown because she wanted to keep her reputation as a premier who keeps the state open, Ms Berejiklian replied: "I do not regret a single decision we have taken.

"I have never cared about what people think about me. I care about keeping people safe."

Greater Sydney was placed into lockdown on Saturday after escalating restrictions were enacted over several days across the city's centre and east.

Residents in the lockdown zone are only allowed to leave home for work that can't be done at home, to shop for essentials, for exercise, to seek medical care or for care-giving or compassionate reasons.

Anyone in regional NSW who has been to Greater Sydney since June 21 is also being asked to stay home for the lockdown period.

Dr Chant said she was confident the lockdown - scheduled to end at 11.59pm on July 9 - would be sufficient to bring the outbreak under control.

She denied the state's contact tracers were overwhelmed by the rising number of exposure sites but admitted the Delta variant was an unprecedented challenge.

"If we all take this very seriously, we maintain those testing numbers, then two weeks may be sufficient to have that comfort," Dr Chant said.

NSW Health on Sunday afternoon issued a number of new exposure sites including a Mexican restaurant at Bondi Beach, two eateries in Maroubra, Establishment Bar in the Sydney CBD and an Annandale cafe.

Orange Supermarket at Rhodes was also listed as a close contact venue.

However authorities also issued a correction, removing Crossroads Hotel in Casula as a venue of concern and adding Crossways Hotel in Strathfield South - a different part of Sydney.

Ms Berejiklian said the government should be judged by the number of COVID-19 cases uncovered in the community, rather than those already in isolation.

Opposition Leader Chris Minns said Labor supported the government's public health measures but called for rapid assistance to small businesses.

Mr Minns also wanted Ms Berejiklian to ensure Commonwealth emergency payments to workers were rolled out as quickly as possible.

"Any measures in these areas will get immediate endorsement from me and my NSW Labor team," Mr Minns said in a statement.

The Australian Retailers Association earlier this week estimated the loss in retail trade during the lockdown would reach $2 billion.

Meanwhile, NSW Police issued more than 15 fines for offences on the first night of lockdown.

They included an eastern Sydney family travelling to the Hunter for a sporting event and an Illawarra cafe owner who refused to wear a mask.

© AAP 2021

Johnathan Thurston says Queensland can prove Ronaldo Mulitalo's eligibility after Phil Gould blasted the "farcical" laws that have extraordinarily denied the winger a State of Origin debut just hours before the game.

New Zealand-born talent Mulitalo was withdrawn from the Suncorp Stadium clash on Sunday morning after the Maroons were unable to provide proof that disproved information from a 2019 article claiming he had moved to Queensland just shy of his 14th birthday.

Under eligibility requirements, players must have lived in either NSW or Queensland prior to their 13th birthday.

NSWRL asked the NRL to look into the matter on Saturday night after the 21-year-old's late call up to replace the injured Reece Walsh.

With time against them the QRL opted to pull Mulitalo from the game and replace him with Brisbane winger Xavier Coates, who arrived at the team hotel less than 10 hours before kick off.

The Maroons believed Cronulla winger Mulitalo was eligible because he had already played for Queensland's under-18 and under-20 sides, albeit potentially only because of administrative oversight.

However, Queensland assistant coach Johnathan Thurston said on the Nine Network's Sunday Footy Show that the Maroons were confident they could produce documents that proved Mulitalo had arrived in Australia before his 13th birthday.

"His dream of playing in the Maroons jersey has been ripped from under him," Thurston said.

"It's been a hectic 24 hours for the young kid and we have still haven't given up hope of him playing in the series, given the fact we couldn't get the right documentation to prove he was here before he was 13.

"The NRL made the call that if he does play the game will be null and void.

"Hopefully we can get that documentation over the next week or so and he can be back in camp."

That claim is despite Mulitalo telling News Corp on Sunday that he had arrived as a 13-year-old, while he was also quoted in a 2016 article claiming he was a "NSW boy" but would represent Queensland at a junior level "as a favour" to his mother.

QRL managing director Rob Moore said he didn't know why Mulitalo's eligibility hadn't been verified when he played at a junior level, and he was frustrated this had not come to light until Saturday.

He said Mulitalo's claims in the 2019 article that he arrived just before his 14th birthday weren't necessarily correct and that they would attempt to find evidence that he had in fact arrived sooner.

Former Blues coach Gould said the eligibility rules were out-dated and not suitable for a sport trying to enhance its international footprint.

"The players playing here in Australia who come through the Australian system should be able to play Origin football and then if they elect to play internationals with New Zealand or whoever strengthens international football," he said.

"Nobody's trying to cheat the system.

"He's already played 16s, 18s and 20s for Queensland so who allowed that to happen if he was never a hope of playing Origin down the track?

"The whole thing is just farcical, absolutely farcical.

"These eligibility rules have been ad-hoc, done on the run, changed here and there to suit a team.

"And he's going to be replaced by Xavier Coates who's already played for Papua New Guinea."

ARL Commission boss Peter V'landys accepted responsibility for the gaffe and apologised to Mulitalo, saying there was not enough time to use new discretionary powers available to grant the Sharks flyer a debut.

© AAP 2021