Australian NSW reports increase number of COVID-19 cases; vaccinations speed up

SYDNEY, Sept.8 (Reuters) – Three-quarters of people over 16 in New South Wales (NSW) Australia have now received at least their first dose of vaccination, the state reported on Wednesday, as well as the first increase in new infections in three days.

Australia has locked up Sydney and Melbourne, its largest cities, after outbreaks of the highly infectious Delta variant in June ended months of little or no community transmission.

The country now aims to live with the virus rather than eliminate it once it achieves broad immunization coverage of around 70% of its adult population of 20.6 million, a goal it is expected to reach in early November based on current rates.

New South Wales reported 1,480 locally acquired cases, up from 1,220 a day earlier, while cases in neighboring Victoria rose from 246 to 221.

Nine new deaths have been recorded, but rising immunization levels among the most vulnerable means the current outbreak’s death rate is 0.41%, according to data, lower than previous outbreaks.

Australia has largely avoided the high number of coronavirus seen in many other developed countries through strict border closures and restrictions, with just 66,300 cases and 1,061 deaths reported throughout the pandemic.

As it prepares to emerge from lockdowns in its two largest cities, the government plans to use vaccination certificates for international travel from October, the Sydney Morning Herald said in a report without citing a source .

Australians are prohibited from leaving the country unless they have exemptions, while returning travelers must undergo a two-week hotel quarantine at their own expense.

The latest pandemic modeling from the Burnet Institute showed that without a lockdown and rapid vaccination, there would have been an estimated 590,000 additional cases and 5,800 deaths in the 12 hard-hit western suburbs of Sydney in the six months to December.

So far, 139 deaths and nearly 30,500 cases have been reported since the first case of the current outbreak was detected on June 16 in the state.

Report by Renju José; Editing by Stephen Coates and Lincoln Feast.

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