"We say to everyone please take this seriously, we don't want to use police but we will," she said. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video As at 3pm on Thursday, there are 2799 cases in Australia, with 1219 in NSW, 520 in Victoria and 493 in Queensland. Authorities confirmed a midwife at St George Hospital had tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday. Those in close contact have been informed.

Waverley, Ryde, Camperdown and Hornsby are home to coronavirus clusters that have infected 73 people in the last month. Another cluster in Wollongong that began in early March is linked with a further 34 cases. Loading NSW Health previously said several diagnoses were connected with a party at Bondi Pavilion on Sunday March 15 called the Bondi Boogie Wonderland Bucket List party. Bondi, Tamarama and Bronte beaches were closed on March 21 after large crowds gathered and social distancing was ignored during hot weather.

All of the clusters are active with at least one of the cases being diagnosed in the last 14 days. Two separate clusters started in Waverley last week on March 17. One has infected 16 people and the other has infected 19. Ryde has also seen two separate clusters. The first, which began on February 24, has infected 19 people. The Ryde LGA includes Ryde Hospital and Dorothy Henderson Lodge aged care facility, Macquarie Park — both of which have been linked to a spate of transmissions. The second cluster began on March 8 — the day of the Sydney Church of Christ service at Ryde Civic Centre. Four people initially presented with symptoms after attending the service. It is now linked with 15 infections. The Camperdown and Hornsby clusters have spread the virus to two people each.

South-east and northern Sydney have the highest rates and number of residents with confirmed cases in NSW with 319 and 247 cases respectively as at March 25 at 8pm. They made up almost half of the state's total cases at that time. NSW Health has released a list of areas that have had local transmissions but where the source is still unknown. It includes eight cases in Waverley, eight in Hornsby, and five each in Ku-ring-gai, Ryde and Sydney. On Wednesday night, NSW reported 1219 confirmed cases. Out of these, 309 were transmitted locally — 88 of which from a contact that could not be identified. A further 263 cases remained under investigation. This also accounts for roughly half of the state's cases. While Australia's earlier cases were imported from overseas, the federal government has progressively tightened shutdown and social distancing measures that are designed to curb local transmissions.

In the last week, food courts and beauty salons other than hairdressers have been closed. Numbers at weddings and funerals have been drastically limited, as well as in personal training. Social gatherings in homes have been restricted. The escalation of measures are seen to be in preparation for the next stage of the coronavirus pandemic in Australia. There are 16 COVID-19 cases in intensive care units across NSW with 10 requiring ventilators. A further two children under 10 have tested positive, bringing the total in that age group to four. A one-year-old girl whose parent is a confirmed case and a two-year-old girl who acquired the infection overseas have both already been isolation with family, and have mild symptoms. There are 121 confirmed cases in NSW who were aboard the Ruby Princess and 31 from the Ovation of the Seas cruise ship.