Sydney's ticket out of COVID lockdown? Six million shots

Canberra: Australia's New South Wales, home to Sydney, said on Tuesday it could ease a COVID-19 lockdown that demands five million people stay at home until the end of August if 50% of the population is vaccinated, even as new infections linger near a 16-month high.

A lifting of restrictions in New South Wales, the country's most populous state, would be a boost for Prime Minister Scott Morrison, under intense pressure for his government's handling of the vaccine rollout, with the threat of a second economic recession in as many years looming. New South Wales, which accounts for a third of all activity in Australia's A$2 trillion ($1.47 trillion) economy, has struggled to contain a surge of cases of the highly infectious Delta variant in Sydney, the country's biggest city, despite the lockdown, currently due to be lifted on Aug. 29.