LATEST COVID-19 DEVELOPMENTS:
* A haircut and a parma and pot are finally back on the menu for fully vaccinated Victorians, with the state to end its sixth long-running lockdown five days earlier than planned.
* The race to get vaccinated has cemented the state’s early reopening from 11.59pm on Thursday, which will see the back of restrictions on leaving home and the controversial 9pm curfew.
* Large-scale construction sites can also increase to 100 per cent capacity but only if all workers are fully vaccinated.
* Those living in metropolitan Melbourne will still be banned from visiting regional Victoria.
* Victoria announced 1838 new local cases and seven deaths on Sunday.
* Australia has secured two additional COVID-19 treatments but federal Health Minister Greg Hunt has made it clear they won’t replace vaccinations.
* The government has reached agreement with Roche Products to supply 15,000 doses of the antibody-based therapy Ronapreve and secured 500,000 courses of Pfizer’s oral antiviral drug, which will be available in 2022.
* Mr Hunt says 32.5 million vaccine doses have now been given nationwide – “an incredible number” – while the 85 per cent first-dose and 70 per cent second-dose marks are likely to be passed over the next week.
* NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has announced a cash injection of $130 million to provide more appointments for psychology and psychiatry services, address a sharp rise in eating disorders and self-harm presentations, and free up more mental health beds.
* NSW added 301 new locally acquired infections a day after reaching 80 per cent double-dose vaccination. There are 619 virus patients in the state’s hospitals, 137 of them in intensive care.
* A further 10 NSW virus patients died in the 24 hours to Sunday.
* Preschoolers and students in grades 1 and 12 will return to school on Monday, with the remainder to go back the week after.
* Tasmania is breathing a collective sigh of relief, with no cases detected as a result of testing around the primary contacts of a coronavirus-infected hotel quarantine escapee.
* The island state’s south, including Hobart, was forced into a three-day lockdown on Friday evening after the case, a NSW man, spent about 18 hours in the community.
* Health authorities say it is still too early to tell whether the lockdown can be lifted on Monday evening as planned.
* The ACT reported 33 new cases, 24 linked to known infections or ongoing clusters. As of Sunday there were 16 COVID-19 patients in ACT hospitals, including nine in intensive care.
* The ACT started easing lockdown restrictions last Friday.
AUSTRALIAN VACCINATION NUMBERS:
* There have been 32,494,119 doses administered in the national COVID-19 vaccination rollout up to Saturday, including 197,684 in the previous 24 hours.
* Of the total, 19,004,945 have been administered by the Commonwealth (an increase of 113,204 in the previous 24 hours).
* 17,924,448 have been issued in primary care (+109,565) and 1,080,497 in aged and disability facilities (+3,639).
* 13,489,174 have been administered by the states and territories, including 84,480 in the previous 24 hours.
AUSTRALIAN CORONAVIRUS NUMBERS:
* Australia reported 2172 local cases on Sunday: 1838 in Victoria, 301 in NSW and 33 in the ACT.
* The national death toll is 1531: Victoria 965, NSW 526, Tasmania 13, WA 9, Queensland 7, ACT 9, and SA 4. (Two Queensland residents who died in NSW have been included in the official tolls of both states).
GLOBAL CORONAVIRUS NUMBERS:
* Cases: at least 240,376,209.
* Deaths: at least 4,894,323.
* Vaccine doses administered: at least 6,606,982,770.
Data current as at 1700 AEDT on October 17, taking in federal and state/territory government updates and Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre figures.