Measures come as Gladys Berejiklian revealed that there were at least 145 Covid-19 cases that are apparently due to community transmission

NSW is on the brink of announcing new restrictions in which only essential businesses, such as grocery stores, pharmacies, petrol stations and health facilities will remain open and people will be asked to stay in their homes.

Victoria is also heading toward stage 3 restrictions, with each state’s timing likely to move according to the local situation

Meanwhile the prime minister, Scott Morrison has announced a nationwide plan to hold Australians returning from overseas in hotels for their 14 days of isolation in a bid to curtail spread from people returning from overseas, which is currently the greatest source of cases. The quarantine comes into force from midnight Saturday.

The imminent state measures come as the NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, revealed that there were at least 145 Covid-19 cases that appeared to be due to community transmission, that could not be explained by overseas travel or contact with a person that had travelled.

“The community-to-community transmission is what we’re concerned with. When you have cases that come from overseas, you can monitor them and you have a source,” she said on Friday morning.

“But when it’s community-to-community transmission and you don’t have a source, that means the virus is starting to spread in the community without us knowing exactly where. That is a concern,” she said.

What households and businesses hit by the coronavirus shutdown will get in each Australian state and territory Read more

Senior figures in the government said the announcement could come as early as today but would certainly come in the next few days, as new data revealed hotspots in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, northern beaches, Ryde, Hornsby and the Central coast.

The NSW government has announced plans to keep Service NSW – the state government’s one stop shop for government services – open 24 hours to provide advice to the public and assist vulnerable citizens.

It has also been holding link ups with essential services such as the waste industry, and electricity, gas and water companies to ensure their networks are robust and have contingency plans in the case of staff illness.

In her most sombre remarks to date, Berejiklian thanked the public and business for their sacrifices but again implored the public to maintain social distancing and to remain in at home unless absolutely necessary.

“It is really up to all of us now to come together and do our part and deal with this disease at this critical stage. If we can deal with it at this critical stage, we will be better off in the next few seeks and months,” she said.

Berejiklian said she was putting the state “on notice” , that the advice was coming on a daily basis and “ we are all on standby.”

She also sought to reassure that there were adequate beds available in the hospital system. She said there were currently 20 Covid-19 patients in high level care, and 500 beds available. She said there were plans to double and triple that when required.

She said the state would be hiring additional workers to get through the crisis to staff Service NSW, to assist with cleaning, and to help in other ways.

The details of the next stage of lockdowns were are not yet clear, but Berejiklian noted less than 10% of children were attending schools now. She has also made it clear that people will still be able to buy groceries, alcohol, petrol and medicines.

Victoria’s Premier Daniel Andrews said stage 3 restrictions would be coming in and that response would be appropriate to the situation in each state “ because we now all understand that the curves are different.”

“What Queensland is facing, what New South Wales is facing what Victoria is facing is fundamentally different to the Northern Territory and the appropriate response is to deal with the challenge you are facing, not to pursue a national average,” he said.

“We are all fundamentally agreed on that point. Stage III will come. It is not yet here but when it is I will take you through from A to Z what all that actually means and that proportionate response, that localised responses , that’s exactly the way we should be going,” he said.