Queensland, Australia's third most populous state, has said it does not need to order a lockdown after it detected zero Covid-19 infections in the past 24 hours.

The state on Saturday reported five cases of Covid-19, with state Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk warning that a lockdown could be needed to stop the spread of the virus.

However, the state said testing had yet to detect any further cases, avoiding the need for such a measure.

“We're not out of the woods yet, but this is the best result we could have hoped for at this point in the outbreak,” Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles was quoted as saying by Reuters.