What's what with COVID-19 in Australia on December 21, 2021

Wednesday's national cabinet meeting will focus on the Omicron variant as cases mount in eastern Australia.

Up for discussion is whether to mandate masks across indoor settings and the time frame of booster shots.

Scott Morrison says Australia has to move "past the heavy hand of government" and stop shutting down people's lives, the ABC reported.

Mr Morrison earlier said the government would follow the health advice when it came to masks. Different parts of the country have different rules.

Masks are encouraged but not mandated indoors in NSW. In Queensland, they're mandatory in some retail settings and hospitals, but encouraged elsewhere.

Tasmania has brought in an indoor mask mandate. Victoria still requires them in retail settings.

In the latest reporting period, NSW recorded a 3057 new COVID-19 cases - the most of any 24 hours since the pandemic arrived on our shores early in 2020.

NSW Health today reported 284 people with COVID in hospital, compared to 261 on Monday; 39 people in ICU, compared to 33 people the day before; and another two people died with the virus.

As authorities announced another 86 cases of COVID-19 in Queensland they also cut quarantine time for close and casual contacts from 1am Wednesday.

Fully vaccinated close contacts now must quarantine for seven days instead of 14, Deputy Premier Steven Miles said.

"Until now those close contacts have been required to quarantine for 14 days from the 22nd [of December], we will bring down the reduction in that quarantine period from 14 to seven days," he said.

For unvaccinated contacts, the 14-day period remains.

In mask-related news, a woman has allegedly bitten a police officer while attempting to "strangle a dog" after refusing to wear a mask at a Queensland supermarket.

Victoria has reported 1245 new COVID-19 cases and six deaths, as testing sites continue to be inundated in the lead up to Christmas.

The health department confirmed on Tuesday the state is now managing 13,355 active infections.

A total of 392 patients are in hospital, including 73 who are actively infected with the virus and in intensive care, with 43 on ventilators.

The seven-day hospitalisation average has risen by three to 390.

And the testing log-jam is being felt in Victoria, too. At least 15 testing sites were temporarily closed at 9am after reaching capacity, including the Bourke Street walk-in and Albert Park drive-through.

Tasmania has reported four new coronavirus cases as the state's health department boosts testing capacity amid reports of lengthy waits.

The infections, recorded in the 24 hours to 8pm on Monday, bring the island's number of active cases to 14.

Tasmania was virus-free when it reopened borders to fully vaccinated travellers on December 15 and has recorded at least a case a day since.

Meanwhile, an entire flight into Launceston has been listed as a close contact exposure site.

The Virgin flight, VA 1086 from Sydney on December 15, was added to the Tasmanian Public Health list of exposure sites on Monday night.

South Australia has dumped COVID-19 testing on arrival requirements for people travelling from interstate after a blowout in wait times at testing centres.

Some people have been forced to wait for up to eight hours to be tested in Adelaide amid rising virus infections.

Premier Steven Marshall says people travelling to SA from NSW, Victoria and the ACT will no longer be required to have a swab on arrival unless they have symptoms.

However, they must still have a negative test within 72 hours of departure.

The state recorded 154 new cases of the virus overnight. Five people are in hospital.

The ACT has recorded 16 new COVID-19 cases, taking the active case tally to 124.

Three people remain in hospital with the virus. None are in intensive care.

The number of active cases in the national capital has nearly doubled in the past week.

Residents are facing lengthy queues for testing across Canberra, with some forced to close early after reaching capacity.

Nearly 6000 results were processed on Monday as demand for tests reached levels not seen since August.

Three men have been fined for breaching an outback COVID-19 checkpoint in the Northern Territory amid rising virus cases in remote communities.

The men - aged 36, 32 and 25 - were travelling south from Tennant Creek to Alice Springs on Saturday when they allegedly ignored the health order to stop at the checkpoint.

They were each fined $5056 for breaching a health direction and ordered to get a COVID-19 test and isolate until they returned a negative result.

There were 14 new cases overnight, 11 of them locally acquired.

- with AAP