Aus reaches vax targets for roadmap out of pandemic

Canberra,Australian leaders have reached an agreement on vaccination targets required for the country’s roadmap out of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on Friday night that the National Cabinet, which is composed of him and state and territory leaders, has “agreed in principle” to the roadmap that will see Australia eventually treat Covid-19 like any other infectious disease, reports Xinhua news agency.

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 per cent of the adult population is fully inoculated against the virus.

“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 here

The third stage, Phase C, will begin when 80 per cent 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 candidate 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 per cent of Australians aged 16 years and over have received a first dose of a Covid-19 jab, and about 18.2 per cent have been fully vaccinated.

As of Saturday morning, there have been 33,909 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Australia, with 923 deaths.