* National cabinet has designated the local government areas of Brisbane, Logan, Moreton, Redlands and Ipswich as hot spots.

* These areas will be locked down from 6pm on Friday until 6pm Monday in a bid to stave off a possible outbreak of the highly contagious UK variant of COVID-19 after a positive community test on Thursday.

* Queenslanders preparing for lockdown flocked to supermarkets stripping shelves of toiletries, perishables and canned goods with lines stretching for hundreds of metres at some stores. Police were called in to untangle traffic gridlock around major supermarkets and shopping centres. Major supermarkets have imposed storewide purchasing limits.

* NSW has recorded four new locally-acquired cases of COVID-19 including a mystery unsourced case in Sydney's northern beaches as the area's northern zone readies to emerge from lockdown. There were also seven new cases from overseas travellers in hotel quarantine.

* Prime Minister Scott Morrison has reduced the number of international arrivals into NSW, WA and Queensland's hotel quarantine systems by 50 per cent.

* A weekly cap in NSW has been set at 1505 people until at least February 15.

* National cabinet has agreed that overseas travellers will need to test negative to COVID-19 before departing for Australia, and daily coronavirus testing is now required for quarantine workers.

* Masks will be mandatory on all domestic and international flights and at airports.

* States and territories have moved swiftly to restrict travel in and out of the greater Brisbane area.

* Tasmania has virtually banned travel from Greater Brisbane and anyone on the island state who's recently visited the region must isolate for two weeks.

*Victorians in the greater Brisbane area should cancel any travel plans back to their home state and abide by a new three-day COVID-19 lockdown.

* Anyone arriving from Brisbane to the Northern Territory from Friday will be required to enter mandatory supervised quarantine.

* Travellers to South Australia from Greater Brisbane will be required to quarantine for 14 days in response to that city's three-day lockdown over the latest coronavirus scare.

* WA has implemented a hard border with all of Queensland.

*The second day of the Australia-India Test is also being played at the SCG on Friday, with attendees forced to wear masks except when eating or drinking.

AUSTRALIAN CORONAVIRUS NUMBERS

* There were 24 new virus cases recorded in Australia - nine in Queensland (overseas acquired), one in Victoria (overseas acquired), 11 in NSW (seven overseas acquired, four locally acquired) and three in SA (overseas acquired).

* The national death toll is 909: Victoria 820, NSW 56, Tasmania 13, WA 3, Queensland 1, SA 1.

GLOBAL CORONAVIRUS NUMBERS

* Cases: at least 88,042,762

* Deaths: at least 1,898,530

* Recovered: at least 49,098,418

* Source John Hopkins University and Medicine

Australian Associated Press