Queensland businesses have managed to escape the latest round of coronavirus restrictions after authorities issued a health alert for 40 locations across the state.

The Sunshine State recorded just two new cases overnight, which the state government said was “encouraging” while cautioning Queensland is not in the clear yet.

The new cases are linked to Brisbane’s Youth Detention Centre, which now has a total of nine associated cases after a centre worker was diagnosed with the virus on Wednesday.

The 77-year-old Ipswich woman had experienced mild symptoms and continued to work while infectious.

The nine cases include the woman, four other staff members and four family members, including a child.

This prompted health authorities to publish an alert for 40 locations centred mainly around Logan, south of Brisbane, with visitors to the areas urged to get tested if suffering even the mildest symptoms.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Sunday ruled out imposing further virus restrictions on businesses.

“We have no concern about that at the moment at all,” she told reporters.

“So please do not be alarmist about that because the businesses have COVID-safe plans in place.”

More than 200 of 500 staff at the Wacol centre had tested negative and more than 110 youths had returned negative results, the premier said.

Health authorities are prioritising testing at the detention centre after all the 127 detainees were placed in lockdown on Wednesday evening.

“The results overnight are encouraging but of course we’re not out of the woods yet,” Ms Palaszczuk told reporters.

Department of Youth Justice director-general Bob Gee said the detention centre’s staff would be swapped out midweek for an all-new workforce.

More than 100 staff members from the Department of Justice and additional officers from police and corrective services will come on board as current staff undergo quarantine.

The children are now being allowed out of their rooms in controlled groups.

“I want to assure parents we’re taking good care of (them),” Mr Gee said.

Queensland has 16 active coronavirus cases. The cases at the centre mark Queensland’s first locally acquired transmissions in more than a month. 

As a result, the premier on Saturday capped indoor and outdoor gatherings without a COVID-safe plan in Queensland’s southeast to 10 people and announced a 30-person limit on gatherings elsewhere in the state.

Aged care homes and disability accommodation services in the southeast went into immediate lockdown.

“I know there are disappointed people out there,” Ms Palaszczuk said on Sunday.

“We have to put public health and community health first.”

Queensland chief medical officer Dr Jeannette Young said police were working to find any young people who had been discharged from the Wacol centre so they could get tested. 

Authorities face a nervous wait to discover if the cases are genomically linked to an outbreak triggered by two Logan women who dodged quarantine following a visit to Melbourne in June.

Dr Young said the low number of new cases reported in Queensland was positive but noted it was “far too early to relax” and that the next week would be critical.