Australia recorded a handful of new locally acquired coronavirus cases, with frictions increasing between state leaders over the best approach to manage and contain the outbreaks.

The northern state of Queensland recorded one new case, in the quarantined partner of a cleaner who was found to have the highly infectious UK strain last week, which triggered a three-day lockdown over the weekend.

The country's most populous state of New South Wales logged five new locally acquired infections, including two mystery cases that caused the emergency department at Sydney's Mount Druitt hospital to close for deep cleaning, Reuters reported.

Including cases from returning travellers in hotel quarantine, Queensland registered three new cases and New South Wales logged 16 new cases. Victoria recorded no community infections for a sixth consecutive day.