The border had been closed since August, but regional NSW residents will soon be able to travel to Queensland - unless they have been to one of the 32 local government areas in Sydney which Queensland still classes as COVID-19 hotspots.

If so, they will have to wait for 14 days after that visit to Sydney.

The news was welcomed by Thirroul travel agent Keith Scott, owner and manager of the northern suburb's Helloworld agency.

"We are very glad that the borders are finally open for Queensland," he said.

"It represents a lot of our domestic business and having had seven months of no business at all, we're grateful they've opened the borders and we can hopefully start selling some travel for people to go up north.

He said the popular destinations were usually the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, north Queensland and the Whitsunday Islands.

Jonathan Hickman, owner of Wollongong's Travel on Crown, hopes Western Australia and other states follow soon.

"It's a start which is great - we just need the other borders to open," he said.

Mr Hickman said he'd have preferred open borders in our winter months, as north Queensland would soon be in its wet season.

Queensland's Deputy Premier Steven Miles said the border would remain closed to people who travel through Victoria and 32 local government areas of Greater Sydney.

Any regional NSW residents who have been through those 32 areas in Sydney will not be allowed into Queensland for 14 days.

The current restrictions will be eased from 1am AEST on Tuesday.

Read more: Science Space gets spooky for Friday fright

Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said ongoing mystery COVID-19 outbreaks in the Sydney area was behind her decision to advise that residents from the city should continue to be blocked from entering Queensland.

"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."

The announcement comes as no new cases of locally transmitted COVID-10 were recorded overnight in NSW. Six cases were reported in overseas travellers in hotel quarantine, bringing the total number of cases in NSW to 4228.

As at 8am on Thursday, there have been 140 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District - with 133 of those patients since recovered. The three most recent cases are returned travellers in hotel quarantine.

The border was closed in August, with Queensland previously saying it would reopen it on November 1 if NSW had control of virus outbreaks in the community.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has repeatedly said she won't put Queenslanders' lives at risk by reopening too early.

"I have to do what I have to do to keep Queenslanders safe," she said on Thursday while campaigning for re-election on the Gold Coast.

The border has become a state election issue, with Labor warning voters the Liberal National Party can't be trusted to make sound decisions to protect the community from the virus.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian have also waded into the debate, with both repeatedly urging Queensland to open the border sooner than later.

It's a call echoed by business groups, who say the closed border is stifling trade and crippling profits.

The border with NSW closed on August 8, with access only permitted to frontier residents, essential workers, freight drivers and people granted medical or compassionate exemptions.

A border bubble taking in much of northern NSW remains in place, with residents from communities as far south as Byron Bay allowed to travel in and out of Queensland.

Queensland recorded one new case of the virus in hotel quarantine in the 24 hours to Friday morning.

Australian Associated Press

We depend on subscription revenue to support our journalism. If you are able, please subscribe here. If you are already a subscriber, thank you for your support.