Australia hits 80% full Covid vaccine rate for people aged 16 and up

[SYDNEY] Australia hit its target of having 80 per cent of people aged 16 and older fully vaccinated against Covid-19, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said, as the country shifts from a strict containment policy toward living with the virus as endemic.

"We did it!" Morrison wrote in a Facebook post. "It's going to help us to continue to safely reopen and stay safely open."

Australia's two largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, eased their tough lockdown measures in recent weeks after hitting a 70 per cent inoculation threshold, allowing residents to eat at restaurants and re-opening schools. Roughly half of the country's population spent months under stay-at-home orders this year as authorities battled the spread of the highly-contagious delta variant.

Authorities have said more freedoms would be introduced after passing 80 per cent, with a further lifting next month that will include people who aren't fully vaccinated.

BLOOMBERG