CANBERRA, Jul 30 (NNN-XINHUA) – Australian leaders have reached an agreement on vaccination targets required for the country’s pathway out of the COVID-19 pandemic, as the most populous state, New South Wales (NSW) reported 170 new local cases.
Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, announced tonight that, the National Cabinet, which is composed of the prime minister and state and territory leaders, “agreed in principle” to a roadmap that will see Australia eventually treat COVID-19 like any other infectious disease.
The National Cabinet agreed that Australia will move to the second phase of the plan, under which vaccinated people will be subject to fewer restrictions and lockdowns, unlikely but possible and targeted, when 70 percent of the adult population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
“To get to that next phase, all of Australia has to get there together, on average. And, then beyond that each state and territory will pass into that second and third phase, based when they reach those thresholds,” Morrison told reporters in Canberra.
The third stage – Phase C – will begin when 80 percent of the population have received both vaccine doses, lifting all restrictions on outbound travel for vaccinated Australians and extending travel bubble for unrestricted travel to new countries.
The final stage is the post-vaccination phase, under which Australia’s international borders will be reopened with quarantine only required for arrivals from high-risk countries.
So far, about 39.9 percent of Australians aged 16 years and over have received a first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, and about 18.2 percent have been fully vaccinated.
As of this afternoon, there have been 33,909 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Australia, and the number of locally acquired cases in the last 24 hours was 173, according to the latest figures from the Department of Health.
The NSW government announced on Wednesday, a four-week extension to the lockdown on Greater Sydney and surrounding areas, as daily case numbers in the state continued to hover in triple digits.
