NSW has recorded five new locally acquired cases of COVID-19, increasing the likelihood that the border reopening with Queensland will be delayed.
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The state recorded 10 new cases in total in the 24 hours to 8pm on Thursday, bring the overall number to 4082.
Five of the new cases are returned overseas travellers in hotel quarantine while the other five were locally acquired and linked to a known case or cluster.
The rise of new local cases has threatened the prospect of Queensland reopening its border with NSW on November 1.
Queensland on Wednesday gave NSW 48 hours to find the source of three new cases before restarting the 28-day countdown clock that triggers border reopenings.
Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles said he was disappointed NSW didn't want to "share the aspiration" to control community transmission and had "effectively given up" on 28-day milestone that his state reached on Friday.
But NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said this accusation was "really offensive" and again attacked the Queensland government for not opening its border.
She said it was effectively easier for Queensland to reach the 28-day goal as it had a smaller population than NSW, had a closed border, wasn't taking as many returned travellers in hotel quarantine, and was further away from Victoria.
"Zero community transmission is of course our aspiration," Ms Berejiklian told reporters on Friday.
"All I'm saying to other states is look at what we're burdening in NSW, look at the GST contribution you get from us on average. Share the burden a little bit.
"I could easily say 'zero community cases' if I only had 700 quarantine people per week (but) we've got 3000."
Ms Berejiklian on Thursday accused Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk of making up rules regarding the 48-hour deadline.
The premier on Friday said she hoped to see open borders Australia-wide by Christmas, depending on Victoria's situation and warned tourism could suffer if borders remained closed.
NSW Health said four of the new locally acquired cases reported on Friday are associated with a private health clinic cluster.
It said all indications were that one of the new cases is an old case most likely acquired when the virus was circulating at low levels in southwest Sydney in August.
Meanwhile, NSW Health is working with Potts Point restaurant Monopole to assess the risk to patrons and staff who may have been exposed to COVID-19 when a person who was infectious visited from 6pm to 8pm on October 4.
Contact tracing is under way and the department will contact close and casual contacts directly but urged anyone who was there to monitor for symptoms.
NSW recorded eight more locally-acquired cases on Thursday, including three flagged on Wednesday, ending a 12-day streak without any community transmission.
Five of the cases announced on Thursday were linked to a Liverpool Hospital dialysis cluster - one healthcare worker in her 30s, two women who visited her, and two household contacts aged in their 60s and 80s.
The source of the second cluster - the three cases revealed on Wednesday - is under investigation.
A spokesman from Macquarie University confirmed that a student was among the recently diagnosed cases, and contact tracing was under way.
More than 200 Australian sailors are returning home after going three months at sea without setting foot ashore due to COVID-19 precautions.
HMAS Hobart was due to dock in Sydney around midday on Friday after travelling through southeast Asia and the Pacific.
"Certainly everybody on board is looking forward to getting back to friends and family, and the simple parts of life like fresh bread and no restrictions on the amount of milk you can have in your cup of tea," Captain Phillipa Hay told AAP.
Australian Associated Press
