* Prime Minister Scott Morrison has hit back at calls for Australians to be brought home from overseas whether they have tested positive for COVID-19 or not.

* He says the suggestion infected people can be put on planes and flown into Australia "doesn't make sense".

* About 80 returnees are now in quarantine in the Howard Springs facility in the Northern Territory after they landed from India on Saturday following the lifting of the travel ban from the virus-ravaged country.

* However the plane was only half full because more than 40 people who tested positive pre-flight along with about 30 of their close contacts were barred from returning.

* Mr Morrison says the government will work closely with Qantas as it conducts tests in India but insists it is essential to have a rigourous regime in place.

* Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese says if Australians had been brought home by last Christmas as the government had promised, they wouldn't now be COVID positive in India.

* He says the coalition should have listened to Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk last October when she proposed the construction of further Australian quarantine facilities.

*As of Sunday morning, the Northern Territory had six active overseas-acquired cases on its books.

* Virus-related restrictions across Greater Sydney will ease from midnight on Sunday, with NSW again reporting zero new locally-acquired cases on Sunday.

* The state conducted more than 12,200 tests in the preceeding 24 hours, while three new cases were uncovered in hotel quarantine.

* Despite investigations, the source of an east Sydney man's infection which prompted the return to mask-wearing and distancing rules remains unclear.

AUSTRALIAN CORONAVIRUS NUMBERS:

* Australia reported no new locally acquired virus cases on Sunday. There were at least nine new overseas-acquired cases: four in Victoria, three in NSW and one each in Queensland and South Australia.

* The national death toll is 910: Victoria 820, NSW 56, Tasmania 13, WA 9, Queensland 7, SA 4, ACT 3 (Two Queensland residents who died in NSW have been included in the official tolls of both states).

GLOBAL CORONAVIRUS NUMBERS:

* Cases: at least 162,208,037

* Deaths: at least 3,365,106

* Vaccine doses administered: at least 1,436,372,607.

Data current as of 1730 AEST on May 15, taking in federal and state/territory government updates and Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre figures.

Australian Associated Press