Border restrictions eased in Australian states despite Covid cases surge

The border restrictions between Australia's Victoria, Australian Capital Territory (ACT), and New South Wales (NSW) will be eased, as the "relative risks" change in Victoria amid the worsening Covid-19 situation.

From midnight Wednesday, non-lockdown areas of NSW and ACT will change from red to orange zones, and extreme risk zones will move to red zones. Residents entering Victoria from those areas will need to have a test after arriving and wait for a negative result prior to moving into the community, Xinhua news agency reported.

"As the relative risks change and as we move progressively towards opening up of the Victorian community under the national plan... we will continue to monitor and as we are confident the risk continues to be mitigated in NSW. We want to make sure that we continue to keep a close eye on that and if there are further changes to be made in due course, we will, let everybody know," the Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley said.

The decision came after Victoria reported its seventh day of recording more than 1,000 Covid-19 daily cases and 11 new deaths, while Australia hits its 80 per cent first dose target for all Australians aged over 16.

In the neighbouring state of NSW, the Covid-19 cases dropped below 600 and the full vaccination rate is about to hit 70 per cent in the state.

The NSW Health Department also reported 10 deaths - IANS