NSW, Victoria and Queensland record no new local cases for a second day

Australia has recorded another doughnut day with no locally acquired coronavirus cases detected in any State for a second day in a row.

Queensland recorded no new local cases, but two cases in hotel quarantine and one historical case.

The State now has 30 active cases, 1,290 total cases and have conducted 1,666,091 tests.

It comes as comes as Queensland’s chief health officer has denied there was breach of quarantine rules at a Brisbane hotel linked to a cluster of the highly contagious UK coronavirus strain.

The Grand Chancellor Hotel was shut on Wednesday after six people linked to the quarantine facility tested positive for the UK variant.

Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young says there was no breach of protocols when a daughter accompanied her father, who had the strain, to hospital on New Year’s Day.

She says the woman wore PPE at all times and was treated by Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) and hospital staff as if she was a positive case.

“We didn’t get a positive result on him till the next day but it doesn’t matter because he went via ambulance to the hospital, was assessed there, was treated as if he was positive, was kept because he needed to because of the symptoms that he had,” Dr Young told reporters.

“Now, his English is not great, so the daughter went with him, but she was treated as if she was positive, so they were managed in negative pressure rooms etc etc.

“So there’s no risk and all of the transport was done via QAS, and that is QAS’s job, and they do (it) very, very effectively.

“They move infectious people, not just COVID but other infectious people, so there’s no issue here at all.”

Victoria’s zero local case streak has hit nine days, as authorities hope to scale back border restrictions for Greater Sydney.

Two COVID-19 cases, however, have been recorded in hotel quarantine.

The Department of Health and Human Services also received notification of a very low positive result on Thursday.

“Multiple follow up tests have returned negative results and strongly suggest that the original result is either a false positive or persistent shedding from a historic infection,” the DHHS tweeted on Friday.

The case is not linked to a known case or public exposure site.

Some 15,010 people were tested for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours.

While the state has reopened its border to regional NSW, thousands of Victorians have been stranded in Greater Sydney for more than two weeks as it is classified as a “red” zone.

Mr Andrews said the government was looking to reduce the red zone to local government areas.

Greater Brisbane, which emerged from a three-day lockdown earlier this week, also remains a red zone.

“I understand it’s not easy,” the premier said on Thursday.

NSW recorded no new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night.

There were two cases recorded in returned travellers, bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases in NSW since the beginning of the pandemic to 4,856.

It comes as the NSW government urges residents to be tested in greater numbers so it can ease public health restrictions, after a second day of no local coronavirus cases.

Some 16,070 tests were conducted in the 24 hours to 8pm on Thursday with only two cases identified, both in hotel quarantine.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said on Friday the testing rates were “not where we would like them to be”.

Just over 20,000 were tested on the previous day, but the government wants to see daily numbers over 25,000.

The government is considering lifting restrictions in greater Sydney as local case numbers have nosedived.