Eighty per cent of people in Australia aged over 16 have now been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, Prime Minister Scott Morrison says.
Mr Morrison posted a video on Facebook with news on Saturday morning, calling it "another magnificent milestone".
"A huge thank you to everyone. This has been a massive Australian national effort, and the work doesn’t stop here. We are on track to have one of the highest vaccination rates in the world," he said.
"The more people protected with the jab, the safer we all are so please go and get vaccinated if you haven’t already done so. It’s going to help us to continue to safely reopen and stay safely open."
The Prime Minister also made special mention of the "extraordinary" vaccination rates among older Australians.
"Ninety-nine per cent of Australians aged over 70 have had a first jab and over 90 per cent have had a second," he said. "That's just extraordinary."
As of Friday, the ACT had the highest rate of second dose vaccinations, at 94.4 per cent of their 16+ population.
New South Wales ranks second at 89.4 per cent, with Victoria third with 83.3 per cent.
Tasmania is likely to be the next state to reach the 80 per cent milestone, with 77.4 per cent of over 16s fully vaccinated as of Friday. South Australia sits at 69.2 per cent adult vaccination while Queensland is at 66.3 per cent.
In Western Australia, where the Premier on Friday double dosed, 65.4 per cent of over 16s have had two doses.
The Northern Territory sits at 65.2 per cent double dose according to Commonwealth data, but the state government’s weekly tally, which factors in remote living arrangements and transient populations, places the state at 76 per cent coverage for over 16s.
Meanwhile, hospitals, aged care facilities and schools are among the high-risk settings where workers and visitors could face rapid testing under an Australian plan to be developed.
National cabinet on Friday agreed the federal health department and Australian Health Protection Principal Committee will work on creating a nationally consistent framework for the use of rapid antigen tests.
Australian health authorities have previously been cautious to expand the use of rapid antigen tests given they are less reliable than PCR swabs.
States and territories will also consider changes to isolation requirements for fully vaccinated primary close contacts, including no or minimal quarantine for up to seven days.
Casual contacts would only be asked to seek testing and isolate if experiencing symptoms, but avoid high-risk settings until they return a negative result.
The federal government has also pledged to start vaccinating five to 11-year-old children, if backed by the national medicines regulator and immunisation advisory group.
With AAP.
