The state has seen a clear downtrend in the number of new cases, reporting 496 new infections and eight deaths in the latest 24-hour period on Monday.
Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest city, is expected to follow New South Wales’ suit shortly to lift a weekslong lockdown in the state of Victoria once the 70% vaccination threshold is reached, despite seeing a record 1,965 daily cases on Saturday, the highest daily figure in Australia since the pandemic began.
As vaccination levels increase, Australia is looking toward transitioning to living with the virus. The government plans to lift restrictions in stages on Australian travelers returning home on condition that the country hits inoculation rates of 70 and 80 percent and eventually on all international travelers.
Several states and territories with fewer or no infections, however, are reluctant to follow the national plan, vowing to keep their borders closed until they reach an indeterminate percentage above 80%.
Officials in the states of West Australia and Queensland, which have so far managed to avoid any major outbreaks of the Delta variant, will be watching New South Wales and Victoria closely as they chart the path toward living with the virus.
Australia’s number of COVID-19 infections and deaths remain relatively low, with around 127,500 cases and 1,440 deaths since the pandemic began. Some 62 percent of the population aged 16 and over has been fully vaccinated, while 82.2 percent have received the first dose.
