Australia Records Increased COVID-19 Vaccination, While State Of Victoria Records Daily Infection Cases

Illustration of Prahran, Victoria. (Wikimedia Commons/Mat Connolley)

JAKARTA - The Australian state of Victoria reported a rise in daily cases of COVID-19 this year on Thursday, amid a surge in COVID-19 vaccinations with nearly 70 percent of the adult population has received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Melbourne, home to Victoria, recorded 514 new infections, exceeding the previous daily record high of 473 infections that occurred last Monday.

Under the reopening plan announced in July, the federal government will urge states and territories to start living with the virus once the high vaccination target is reached.

"The double dose of 70 percent and the double dose of 80 percent are already visible. Continue Australia", Prime Minister Scott Morrison said at a news conference in Canberra.

To date, around 44 percent of Australians over the age of 16 have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Meanwhile, about 69 residents in this category have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

As for Victoria, first dose coverage will hit 70 percent by Friday, officials said, when some restrictions on travel and outdoor exercise in Melbourne will be relaxed.

Meanwhile, Sydney and Melbourne, Australia's two largest cities, have stepped up COVID-19 vaccination efforts, to contain the third wave of COVID-19 infections triggered by the Delta variant, forcing half of the country's total 25 million population under home-lock orders.

New South Wales authorities, at the heart of Australia's worst coronavirus outbreak, have called on residents to get a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible, after 12 new COVID-19 deaths were reported, with 10 of them unvaccinated.

Cases of infection in the state stood at 1.351, up from 1.259 cases recorded the day before, with the capital Sydney accounting for the majority of infections.

A once strict curfew in 12 of Sydney's hard-hit western suburbs to contain the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19 ended Wednesday at midnight, as COVID-19 vaccinations ramp up.

Meanwhile, Melbourne's five million residents remain under lockdown for a sixth week, the most of any Australian city since the pandemic began last year.

Please note, Melbourne residents are planning to stage anti-lockdown protests over the weekend. Meanwhile, the authorities tried to prevent it by stopping public transportation and deploying thousands of police.