No new community cases of COVID-19 have been recorded in NSW or Queensland in the last 24 hours after a Sydney quarantine hotel security worker and a Brisbane doctor recorded positive infections in recent days.
The clean slate for NSW comes after 6,257 tests were processed in the 24-hours until 8pm on Monday.
NSW health authorities were on high alert after the 47-year-old guard was diagnosed after the state had 55-day COVID-free hiatus.
It isn't clear how the guard at Sydney's Sofitel hotel contracted the virus as there were no obvious breaches of health protocols, but he has the same highly-contagious UK strain as an infected returned traveller on the floor he was working.
It is hoped that the guard was less contagious after receiving the first shot of the Pfizer vaccine but investigations are still underway to determine the source of his infection, NSW Health said in a statement on Tuesday.
"Testing continues on close contacts of the case, who remains asymptomatic. The case's household contacts have all tested negative and will continue to self-isolate for 14 days," NSW Health said.
Health alerts have been issued for venues around Hurstville, in Sydney's south, where the guard had visited.
In Queensland authorities had tested about 230 of the 400 people who may have come into contact with the doctor who became infected after working at Princess Alexandra Hospital and visiting four venues in the city's south on Thursday. All tests returned a negative result.
"That's great news and we're feeling a little bit relieved today," Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told reporters on Tuesday.
As a precaution, a lockdown Brisbane's hospitals, aged care facilities and disability providers has been extended for another 72 hours.
Meanwhile, guests at the Hotel Grand Chancellor will find out on Wednesday if their quarantine will be extended again.
Two guests staying in separate rooms on level one at that hotel became infected last week.
One of them passed the virus onto the other, despite having no apparent physical contact, and later to the doctor.
Deputy Chief Health Officer Sonya Barrett said CCTV analysis shows no evidence of a quarantine breach at the hotel.
All guests who have been staying on level one have had their quarantine extended for 14 days from 9 March.
'Full confidence in the vaccine'
Meanwhile, after some recipients developed blood clots but NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said it was "absolutely critical" in the fight against the pandemic.
"The best health advice we're getting in Australia is that it's absolutely safe," she said on Tuesday.
"I have full confidence in the vaccine and I have full confidence in our health experts."
"I certainly wouldn't have taken it if I hadn't done my homework - which I have - and I feel completely safe," Ms Berejiklian told reporters.
The premier also repeated her call to other state leaders to refrain from imposing travel restrictions.
"There is no reason now for anywhere in Australia to have internal borders," she said.
"While the vaccine is being rolled out and the level of transmission is low-to-negligible there shouldn't be any internal borders in our nation.
"We should be moving freely as Australians."
If just one state closes its border "everybody loses confidence because people don't want to move around if they think they're not going to be able to get back home".
With Easter less than three weeks away people needed certainty in order to make travel plans, the premier said.
"We need to think about how we deal with the virus moving forward, given the vaccine rollout is continuing," she said.
Within three weeks NSW will have completed an extra 80,00 jabs and 45,000 new people would have started their vaccine process.
NSW vaccinated frontline workers first because they posed the greatest risk of the virus seeping into the community from hotel quarantine.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has received her first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Source: Getty
"Given we've managed that risk, given that other states are managing that risk there's absolutely no reason for borders to close," the premier said.
"This is good news because it means we're reducing the risk of community transmission. This is a good opportunity for our nation to have a reset - for our nation's leaders and say let's keep our borders open in the interests of our citizens."
'This takes time'
Queensland Health Minister Yvette D'Ath said 21,861 people have had their first vaccine dose as of Tuesday morning.
She said every person in group 1A, including frontline healthcare and quarantine workers, and aged care residents, will be fully vaccinated by March 30.
Queensland's first vaccine hub on the Gold Coast, and hubs in the Torres Strait, have also started to vaccinate people in group 1B.
Ms D'Ath said the Pfizer vaccine can't be stored after being defrosted, so Queensland Health has been giving doses to other workers if frontline workers aren't immediately unavailable.
"No one in 1A is missing out or having their booking cancelled to give it to someone else," she told reporters.
"They're all arriving, they're getting vaccinated, but we are having some excess at the end of the day that we're making sure we don't throw it in the bin."
She said group 1B will be fully vaccinated by mid-June, but she dampened speculation that every Queenslander could be fully vaccinated by October.
Ms D'Ath said that target wasn't possible with supplies from the Commonwealth only set to ramp up in April.
"Now let's be clear, realistically that's for the first dose, not for being fully vaccinated," she said.
"We are seeing around the world, I don't think we've got to one per cent of the world population yet that is fully vaccinated. This takes time."
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