LATEST COVID-19 DEVELOPMENTS:
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*The Australian Medical Association has warned against being too hasty in easing restrictions, calling for a cautious approach even at high vaccination rates as the Doherty modelling does not show the impact on already under-pressure hospitals.
*Business groups led by the Business Council of Australia are urging Australians to get vaccinated under a new campaign, "One shot closer".
* NSW reported 1083 new virus cases on Sunday and 13 deaths, bringing its death toll to 231 since its Delta variant outbreak began on June 16.
*Recreation rules will be relaxed in Sydney's 12 government areas of concern from Monday and fully vaccinated adults will be able to gather in groups of five for outdoor recreation within five kilometres from home.
*Victoria recorded 507 new COVID-19 cases and another death on Sunday, bringing the toll from the latest outbreak to 11.
* Premier Daniel Andrews on Sunday unveiled Victoria's "cautious" roadmap out of lockdown which would see Melbourne's curfew scrapped and travel up to 25km allowed once 70 per cent of Victorians aged over 16 are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
*All Victorian students will return to face-to-face learning before the end of 2021 with a staggered reopening of schools in Melbourne beginning with Year 12 students, who will be back five days a week from October 6 until their exams begin.
* Victoria Police will be pressed by the union on why the riot squad was not sent to support uniformed officers at a violent anti-lockdown rally in Richmond that left several officers in hospital.
* Three more Victorian regions (Greater Geelong, the Surf Coast and Mitchell shires) will join Melbourne and Ballarat in lockdown, for seven days, due to rising COVID-19 case numbers in each area.
* The ACT has recorded 17 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of infections under the current outbreak to 618.
*The ACT government has said it does not feel under pressure to do more to ease its COVID-19 restrictions, with its larger NSW and Victorian neighbours setting out their plans to end lockdowns.
*The ACT will change its daily reporting of vaccination rates from Monday to include the percentage of Canberrans aged 12 and over who have been inoculated rather than the 16-plus percentage.
*Queensland did not record any new COVID-19 cases as the state ramps up vaccination efforts with more than 31,000 jabs administered on Saturday.
*Western Australia recorded a single case of COVID-19 in hotel quarantine -- a returned traveller in his 20s.
AUSTRALIAN VACCINATION NUMBERS:
* There have been 24,619,474 doses administered in the national COVID-19 vaccination rollout up to Saturday, including 227,036 in the previous 24 hours.
* Of the total, 14,157,383 have been administered by the Commonwealth (an increase of 110,306 in the previous 24 hours).
* 13,244,344 have been issued in primary care (+104,093) and 913,039 in aged and disability facilities (+6213).
* 10,462,091 have been administered by the states and territories, including 116,730 in the previous 24 hours.
AUSTRALIAN CORONAVIRUS NUMBERS:
* Australia reported 1607 local cases on Saturday: 1083 in NSW, 507 in Victoria, 17 in the ACT.
* Three overseas-acquired cases were also reported: two in NSW and one in WA.
* The national death toll is 1162: Victoria 831, NSW 297, Tasmania 13, WA 9, Queensland 7, SA 4, ACT 3. (Two Queensland residents who died in NSW have been included in the official tolls of both states).
GLOBAL CORONAVIRUS NUMBERS:
* Cases: at least 228,125,000.
* Deaths: at least 4,685,000.
* Vaccine doses administered: at least 5,883,196,000.
Data current as at 1700 AEST on September 19, taking in federal and state/territory government updates and Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre figures.
Australian Associated Press
