Australia’s Victoria state reported 779 new COVID-19 infections and two deaths on Sunday, off the previous day’s record high as the country’s prime minister presses state leaders to be ready to reopen once they meet vaccination targets.
The daily increase was still the state’s second-highest, after the 847 cases logged on Saturday, as officials battle to contain a Delta variant outbreak that has taken root since mid-year.
Australia’s two most populous states, Victoria and New South Wales, have been struggling to contain the highly infectious variant while they ramp up vaccinations to 80 percent of the population, a threshold that will allow officials to ease strict lockdown measures.
Three-quarters of Australians have had a first dose of vaccine, while just half have had both doses.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in an interview aired on Sunday that he expects states to open up borders and ease restrictions once the 80 percent vaccination threshold has been met. “We each have a personal responsibility for looking after our own health. And so it’s important that we do move forward,” he told Channel 7’s Sunrise program.
“There comes a time when you just got to move on and get on with it,” he said from Washington, where he held a summit with his counterparts from the US, Japan and India.
Morrison said his message to Australians was “that what I’d like them to have for Christmas is their lives back. And that’s within the gift of governments. And that’s a gift I’d like to see us give them.”
People exercise in Melbourne on Thursday, as Victoria and New South Wales in Australia announced an easing of coronavirus restrictions amid the pandemic. New South Wales recorded 1,405 new local cases of COVID-19 and Victoria recorded 324 on Thursday. Photo: AFP
