NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is disappointed Queensland is still banning Sydneysiders from entering the state, while opening to regional NSW for the first time in almost four months.
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Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says travel restrictions will ease from 1am on Tuesday, with its border to be opened to everyone but those in Greater Sydney and Victoria.
Ms Berejiklian has been at loggerheads with Ms Palaszczuk, saying the bar Queensland set for resuming travel between the states is too high.
Friday's announcement didn't impress her.
"I'm disappointed. It's extremely unfair and lacks logic and common sense to continue to lump NSW with Victoria - our states have taken very different paths," she told reporters.
No new cases of locally-transmitted COVID-19 were diagnosed in NSW in the 24 hours to 8pm on Thursday, but two new cases emerged after the deadline and are expected to be included in Saturday's numbers.
One case is a child who visited Flip Out Prestons Indoor Trampoline Park, where another confirmed case attended.
The other is a student from Cabramatta High School in Sydney's west. The school will be closed for cleaning over the weekend and health authorities will advise when students can next attend.
Six cases were also diagnosed in hotel quarantine.
Queensland's Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young praised NSW's contact tracing and testing regime and said she had planned to let Sydneysiders in to the state, but changed her mind after another mystery outbreak in the area.
"Yesterday they had four new cases and one of those cases they could not link to any other known clusters," she said.
"(That) means that they have transmission and they don't know where it is coming from."
Dr Young said there was a strong possibility Queensland would open to Sydney once NSW was on top of the community outbreaks.
But Ms Berejiklian said NSW had proven itself capable of managing the virus and the state's sustained, low number of daily cases was proof of that.
She said she suspected Queensland and Western Australia's premiers were making decisions based on elections, not health advice.
"If there were health concerns, I'd be the first to say I understand your position," she said.
"But the lengths that those premiers have gone to is beyond the realm of logic and unfortunately it's hurting families, it's hurting individuals, it's hurting businesses."
Ms Berejiklian's criticism comes as she defends her own decision to keep NSW closed to Victoria.
She said NSW would wait at least two weeks to see how Victoria dealt with the inevitable outbreaks as its restrictions eased, and refused to guarantee NSW would reopen to Victoria by Christmas.
"We will know after two weeks once restrictions are eased what Victoria's situation is," she said.
"We don't want to have the border shut to Victorians one day longer than it has to. We'll rely on the advice, unlike Queensland and WA, who've been dragging their feet for months and months and months for no logical reason."
Public health alerts have been issued for a number of venues across Sydney's southwest after they were visited by confirmed cases.
A police officer is also now isolating, after he entered the room of a man quarantining in a Sydney hotel.
The officer, who is attached to a specialist command, remained at the hotel for a short time after leaving the room, before returning to a police station to complete his shift.
He and a close contact are isolating as police investigate the incident.
Australian Associated Press
