The ACT has become the first Australian jurisdiction to chalk up 90 per cent of the eligible population being double vaccinated.
It comes as the Territory moves toward the ACT Government’s goal of having 99 per cent of the eligible population double vaccinated, which would make it one of the most vaccinated jurisdictions in the world.
The ACT reached the 90 per cent double vaccinated target a little earlier than expected after Chief Minister Andrew Barr earlier this month said he expected to reach the milestone by “the end of the month”.
Mr Barr has continually touted the ACT’s high take up of the jab, and anticipates 99 per cent of the eligible population will be fully vaccinated by the end of November.
“Canberrans should all be proud of how we’ve worked together,” he said earlier this month.
ACT Health stopped publicly reporting first-dose figures over a week ago after first-jab rates cleared 99 per cent for people over 12.
The Chief Minister today flagged that he expects Canberrans vaccinated more than six months ago will be eligible to start receiving booster jabs “in the coming weeks”.
Daily case numbers remain low and have continued to dip since lockdown formally ended on 15 October, with the ACT recording just 10 new cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night.
Total number of cases this week has dropped to 131; it was 230 last week.
The five-day rolling average is sitting at just over 10 after peaking at just over 40 at the start of October.
ACT Chief Health Officer Dr Kerryn Coleman has stated there is not enough information yet to ascribe the drop in daily case numbers to the high levels of vaccination in the community or a drop in testing.
“What is most likely is that it is probably a mix of both,” she said.
The test positivity rate had stayed consistent at 1-1.5 per cent while the proportion of breakthrough infections has risen from four to 14 per cent.
There are currently 280 active cases in the community, part of the total of 1,617 associated with this outbreak to date.
As of last night, there were 11 patients in ACT hospitals with or due to COVID-19; six were in intensive care with five of those ventilated.
The rate of total cases hospitalised has dropped from 10 per cent early in outbreak to just two per cent now.
Public health restrictions will ease further from Friday 29 October, with the Chief Minister, Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith, and Dr Coleman announcing gathering sizes and density limits would ease as previously outlined.
Mr Barr said from from Monday 1 November, the ACT will lift COVID-19 affected area restrictions on travel to and from Victoria and NSW for both ACT residents and visitors from both states.
This means restrictions on travel to approved postcodes within NSW will no longer apply.
Travel restrictions will instead be managed by identifying “high risk” interstate geographical areas.
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