More than 16 million people will enter the weekend under stay-at-home restrictions after Victoria joined Sydney, parts of regional NSW and southeast Queensland in lockdown.

Sydney’s crisis is the most concerning coronavirus flashpoint with 291 new local cases reported today, at least 50 of those infectious in the community, including a dozen workers at a KFC in Punchbowl. Tragically, a woman in her 60s became the 22nd death during the current outbreak.

The worrying update followed 262 new local cases being reported on Thursday, as well as five deaths, as the Delta variant continues to challenge health services. Premier Gladys Berejiklian today said the outbreak was spreading particularly fast in the Canterbury-Bankstown area, and her government would respond with more police to enforce restrictions.

“I do want to foreshadow that, given this high number of cases, we are likely to see this trend continue for the next few days so everybody prepare themselves for higher case numbers in the next few days,” Berjiklian said.

Amid the ongoing lockdown, the NSW Government has announced that Year 12 students will sit assessments and trial HSC exams at home, and those outside the affected local government areas will continue to experience modified schooling arrangements.

Eight new cases in Melbourne triggered a seven-day shutdown, while southeast Queensland remains hopeful of easing restrictions on Sunday.

Police have arrested 15 people after hundreds of protesters rallied in Melbourne’s CBD against Victoria’s sixth coronavirus lockdown announced hours earlier by Premier Daniel Andrews.

Friday marks day one of the restrictions, with more than six million Victorians find themselves living under stay-at-home orders again, only 10 days after coming out of the last lockdown.

Victorians are under the same rules that applied during last month’s lockdown, including the five reasons to leave home, the five-kilometre travel limit for exercise and shopping, and compulsory masks indoors and outdoors.

Protesters, some carrying placards and most not wearing masks, gathered at Flinders Street about 7pm on Thursday and moved into Swanston Street as police in masks gathered to try to disperse them.

Flares were lit and the crowd chanted “no more lockdowns,” the Herald Sun reported while residents of nearby apartments shouted “Go home, idiots”.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has backed lockdowns as the main tool to stop the current outbreaks, while Berejiklian believes vaccinations are key.

Senior federal cabinet minister Peter Dutton criticised the Victorian government’s decision to close the whole state down.

“I don’t agree with the whole of Victoria being locked down or the whole of Queensland being locked down,” he told the Nine Network on Friday.

“In Queensland they have taken the decision to go for a defined number of local government areas and that has worked effectively.”

Deputy federal Labor leader Richard Marles said lockdowns were a product of the prime minister not rolling out vaccines soon enough.

“The biggest issue is a failure of supply right now and that is because Scott Morrison said it wasn’t a race,” he said.

The opposition continues to call for more certainty in federal support packages for business and workers.

Dutton said the government had introduced a more targeted form of nationwide wage subsidies and doubled states’ efforts.

“If there’s more assistance that we need to provide we will,” he said.

The prime minister will chair a national cabinet meeting of state and territory leaders on Friday afternoon to discuss easing restrictions for vaccinated people when coverage rates are higher.

Morrison has rejected Labor’s plan for all fully vaccinated people to receive one-off $300 payments.

Australia has fully vaccinated almost 21 per cent of its population 16 and over but continues to lag behind most of the world.

A record 221,859 doses were administered in the past 24 hours taking the total past 13 million.

Andrews has asked the federal government to bring forward the state’s allocation of Pfizer doses after NSW and Queensland locked in an acceleration.

NSW will receive 183,690 doses in the next two weeks, while Queensland will be given an extra 112,000 in the same period.