Australian states and territories grappling with COVID-19

Victoria noted its third consecutive day of zero local cases on Tuesday, while two cases were detected in hotel quarantine.

Despite Victoria’s results, there are four states and territories in Australia fighting fresh outbreaks of COVID-19.

At the Granites gold mine, north-west of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, a gold miner exposed hundreds of colleagues to the Indian Delta strain of COVID-19 after testing positive on Saturday. About 750 workers at the mine were sent into isolation over the weekend and from the 196 workers presented for testing there were four confirmed cases. Another 900 fly-in-fly-out workers had already travelled home to cities across Australia before the worker was told he had coronavirus, sending state health authorities into panic.

Darwin went into a snap 48-hour lockdown on Sunday, which it extended.

There are fears for the rest of Australia with states scrambling to isolate infections.

READ MORE: NSW documents 18 COVID-19 cases and the number could rise

Southeast Queensland is ‘on the verge of lockdown’ as 170 workers arrived in Brisbane and a female miner from the Bli Bli area of the Sunshine Coast tested positive after spending time out in the community.

Another 24 went to Alice Springs and tested negative, and there are an additional 70 contacts at the Howard Springs hotel quarantine facility.

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Victoria Police increased patrols at the border with NSW, after the state noted 18 new cases on Monday. NSW Premier Gladys Brejiklian said “we have to be prepared for the numbers to go up considerably”.

In Western Australia, the Perth and Peel regions went into a four-day lockdown after a third case of the Delta variant emerged, which is linked to the Sydney outbreak.

South Australia introduced some restrictions without even recording a case.