Queenslanders should know within a day or two if they'll face another lockdown after 10 people with COVID-19 were active in the southeast and Townsville while they were infectious.
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The NRL grand final is still scheduled to go ahead at Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium on Sunday, but a suite of new restrictions mean a quarter of fans with tickets to the sold-out decider won't be able to go.
Stage 2 restrictions are back in force in the Brisbane, Gold Coast, Moreton Bay, Logan, Townsville and Palm Island regions. They will remain in force for a fortnight.
The restrictions include caps on household gatherings, limits of 100 people at weddings and funerals and reduced density rules for cafes and restaurants.
Larger venues, including Suncorp Stadium, will only be allowed to operate at 75 per cent of capacity, meaning 13,000 of the 52,000 people with grand final tickets will be getting refunds and will have to watch the match on TV.
The NRL has decided on a last in, first out policy. The last 25 per cent of fans who ordered tickets in two allocations won't be going.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says she knows there'll be bitter disappointment among excluded fans, but the rules are the rules.
"Stage two says 75 per cent. That's what it will be," she said while "absolutely" rejecting any suggestion she's held off on a lockdown so the final can go ahead.
"Let me make it very clear that the health of Queenslanders comes first."
She said the state would go into lockdown if and when Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young formed a view that it was necessary.
Since Monday, authorities have reported 10 new cases that had been active in the community in Brisbane, on the Gold Coast and in Townsville.
They include six cases announced on Thursday.
Five of them have been linked to a cluster centred on an aviation training facility in the southeast. One is an aviation sector worker who flew to Townsville and was out and about there.
The sixth case is a woman from the Brisbane suburb of Camp Hill who recently visited the NSW town of Kyogle.
The premier warned Queenslanders of further restrictions if there's evidence of community spread.
"The next 24 to 48 hours is going to be very critical," she said.
"As soon as we see further seeding, which is not from people who are in isolation, then they will be the trigger points."
The number of exposure sites linked to the 10 cases is now around the 100 mark, including close contacts sites in Brisbane, on the Gold Coast and in Townsville.
Australian Associated Press
