Australia: Queensland declares greater Sydney a virus hotspot

Pandemic travel restrictions are ratcheting up in Australia, with the state of Queensland announcing Wednesday that anyone returning from Sydney would have to go into hotel quarantine for two weeks.

Queensland had previously only designated three suburban areas of Sydney and all of Victoria state as COVID-19 hot spots.

All of Australia's largest city will be regarded as a hot spot from Saturday.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced the change after two women tested positive for COVID-19 in the state capital Brisbane on Tuesday after returning from Victoria's state capital of Melbourne via Sydney on July 21.

The women are under police investigation because they avoided mandatory quarantine by failing to declare their Melbourne visit.

A school where one of the women works as a cleaner has been closed for cleaning and scores of people the women have had contact with in the past week have been told to self-isolate and get tested.

Queensland has not had a case of community transmission of coronavirus since May.

Sydney's state New South Wales recorded new 19 COVID-19 cases in a day and Victoria reported 295.