Mr Morrison said there was no timeline for each vaccination target but when asked if Australia could reach 70 per cent by the end of the year, he said: I would hope so.
The plan includes four phases: suppression, transition, consolidation and the final phase. Australia is currently in the suppression phase, but will move to the second phase when the 70 per cent target is hit.
Credit:Matt Golding
In the transition phase, the goal is to minimise serious illness, hospitalisation and deaths from COVID-19. Mr Morrison said lockdowns would be less likely but still possible. Restrictions would be eased for people who were fully vaccinated because they were less of a public health risk.
There will still be inbound passenger caps but they will return to previous levels for unvaccinated travellers, and have higher caps for vaccinated returning Australians. There will also be a limited entry of student and economic visa holders allowed.
Once the 80 per cent target is reached, all Australians who are vaccinated will be able to return to the country, caps on students and economic visa-holders will increase, and the government will seek to set up travel bubbles with other countries. At this point, vaccinated residents would be exempt from all restrictions.
Mr Morrison says hes been greatly encouraged by the take-up of the AstraZeneca vaccine over the past month and in all states, not just NSW. If you want to get vaccinated, the AZ vaccine is there for you, it is a highly effective vaccine, as weve seen all around the world.
The Prime Minister had previously praised NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian for refusing to lock down during a Delta outbreak that has now spread around Sydney, but now said he didnt have perfect hindsight.
People were acting on the information they had. No one has perfect hindsight over these issues and the Delta strain is a strain that weve sought to understand and learn and react to and respond to, he said.
Weve all humbly learned from these things, and then we make the adjustments and get on with it.
University of Melbourne professor of epidemiology Tony Blakely backed the idea of a vaccination target as a way to motivate people but said the country could not ease all restrictions once the target was reached.
Professor Blakely said some of the modelling was the right answer to the wrong question because governments would have to offer vaccines to everyone, including children, and adjust their settings in light of the results.
A vaccination target of 80 per cent was a likely goal, he said, but new variants and further breakouts would mean that no vaccination rate was likely to allow Australia to open its borders without restriction.
We talk about opening the borders but it wont be to all countries all of the time, he said.
Professor Blakely said Australia would need a vaccination rate of 90 per cent of the population to reach herd immunity, while a rate of only 50 or 60 per cent would not be high enough to avoid further lockdowns.
