Sydney Braces for Potential Spread of Virus From Queensland New South Wales (NSW) is on high alert for the spread of the contagious UK strain of COVID-19 from Brisbane, where a hotel cleaner caught the mutated virus. NSW is racing to trace the source of a mystery coronavirus case in Sydney’s northern beaches as Australia faces an anxious wait to see if a highly contagious strain of COVID-19 has spread from Brisbane. NSW recorded four new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 on Friday, including one that remains under investigation. Earlier on Friday, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced Greater Brisbane would enter a three-day lockdown after a cleaner at a quarantine hotel was diagnosed with the more infectious UK virus strain.