ACT reports 15 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday

Eleven cases were linked to existing cases and outbreaks, with the remaining cases under investigation. Five were in quarantine for their infectious period and nine people are in hospital, with one in intensive care.

There have been 556 cases in Canberra since the start of the outbreak, but 350 have recovered.

Acting chief health officer Vanessa Johnston said: "Out of the 11 cases that are linked, we know six are household contacts ... Our youngest patient in hospital is in their 30s, and our oldest is in their 70s."

ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr said there had been an improvement in mask-wearing compliance, but some were still disobeying the public health order.

He said the virus reproduction was hovering around one, but said the high-level of vaccination in Canberra was helping keep case numbers in the teens.

"The values that often change case numbers are the size of the households," Mr Barr said.

"... Under the current public health restrictions, we're not seeing clusters of 50 or 60 like we saw earlier in the outbreak."

Asked if ACT was on track to contain the outbreak, Mr Barr said: "It depends how you define contained. You can mount an argument that we are containing ... but if you're asking if we can get back to zero before October 15, I wouldn't make that bold prediction."

The ACT government has launched extra support for businesses affected by the lockdown, announcing a partnership with the Commonwealth to help the hardest-hit industries by offering grants of up to $20,000.

The 50-50 split, joint ACT and Commonwealth funded COVID-19 business support grants has been extended for another fortnight to October 1, when it will be further assessed.

The ACT's community sector will also get a boost, with a $26 million injection as part of the government's looming budget.

"This is a stressful time for everyone," Mr Barr said. "Please reach out for help if you need it."

After being criticised by business groups and the Opposition, Mr Barr stepped through the types of restrictions that could be used as the ACT moves through the phases in the national plan.

"We expect restrictions to gradually change through these vaccination phases in October and November, with the caveat that they may need to be adjusted to respond to increased risk of COVID-19 spreading," he said.

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Mr Barr said home visitation limits would gradually increase, along with caps on gatherings and large events. Density limits for businesses would remain in force and there would be a staged return to office buildings.

"When looking to change our public health restrictions, we'll consider those national and local vaccination rates, the levels of community transmission, especially the proportion of cases infectious in the community, our testing rates and our testing turnaround times, so that we can quickly isolate positive cases," he said.

"Our ability to test, trace, isolate and quarantine through those transition phases is very important."

The national plan, adopted by national cabinet in July, said low-level restrictions and track-and-trace measures would be used to minimise COVID-19 cases in the community once a jurisdiction moves to phase B.

That phase is reached when the national vaccination coverage reaches 70 per cent and the jurisdiction also reaches 70 per cent.

Meanwhile, Southern NSW Local Health District announced the Eurobodalla recorded no new COVID-19 cases overnight.

One new case was recorded in Yass, another in Jerrabomberra and a third in Queanbeyan. Overnight, there were detections of the virus in Narooma and Bermagui sewage treatment plants.

NSW recorded 1351 new cases and 12 deaths, while Victoria added 514 cases to its tally and Queensland announced one new case on Thursday.

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