Melbourne, August 5 (RHC)-- Australia's Queensland state said it would close its border with New South Wales (NSW) state to hold back a second wave of COVID-19.

A surge in coronavirus cases in Melbourne, the country's second-largest city, has forced the state of Victoria to impose a night curfew, tighten restrictions on people's movements and order most businesses to stop trading from Wednesday night.

Other states are imposing new restrictions of their own to prevent any spillover form Victoria and Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who has already shut her northeastern state's border to Victorians, said travelers from NSW and the capital Canberra also would be barred beginning Saturday.

"We have seen that Victoria is not getting better, and we're not going to wait for New South Wales to get worse.  We need to act," Palaszczuk said at a press conference in Brisbane.