<p>Australia's third-largest city of Brisbane will lift a lockdown Sunday after containing a virus cluster, while an outbreak that has kept Sydney paralysed for weeks continues to grow.</p>.<p>Millions of people in Brisbane and surrounding areas have spent just eight days under stay-at-home orders after an outbreak of more than 100 cases spread among several school communities.</p>.<p>Deputy Queensland premier Steven Miles said the region had achieved "something quite incredible" by seemingly bringing the outbreak under control.</p>.<p>"It looks like we may have been able to contain a Delta outbreak in just eight days of lockdown, just 10 days from when the first case was notified," he told reporters.</p>.<p>Restrictions on leaving the city and gatherings will remain in place for at least two weeks.</p>.<p>Authorities also announced a snap three-day lockdown for the northern city of Cairns, after a taxi driver spent 10 days infectious in the 150,000-strong community.</p>.<p>They will join millions of people in Melbourne and Sydney under stay-at-home orders, with Australia's biggest city about to enter a seventh week of lockdown.</p>.<p>New South Wales state recorded 262 new cases Sunday, taking the outbreak that began in Sydney in mid-June to more than 5,000 cases.</p>.<p>State premier Gladys Berejiklian urged Sydney residents to get jabbed, with supermarket and fast-food workers taking priority in a fresh vaccination drive Sunday.</p>.<p>"This is a race. We're keen to sprint to get those vaccination rates up," she said.</p>.<p>Limited supply and pockets of vaccine hesitancy have slowed efforts to inoculate Australians, with just over 20 percent of the population now fully vaccinated.</p>.<p>Health officials are now expecting supplies will be boosted in September, with the Moderna vaccine arriving for the first time and Pfizer imports set to increase.</p>.<p>Australia managed to avoid the worst of the pandemic for the past 18 months, but lockdowns have struggled to contain repeated outbreaks of the highly-infection Delta variant.</p>.<p>The nation has recorded about 36,000 cases of Covid-19 and 935 related deaths to date in a population of 25 million.</p>
<p>Australia's third-largest city of Brisbane will lift a lockdown Sunday after containing a virus cluster, while an outbreak that has kept Sydney paralysed for weeks continues to grow.</p>.<p>Millions of people in Brisbane and surrounding areas have spent just eight days under stay-at-home orders after an outbreak of more than 100 cases spread among several school communities.</p>.<p>Deputy Queensland premier Steven Miles said the region had achieved "something quite incredible" by seemingly bringing the outbreak under control.</p>.<p>"It looks like we may have been able to contain a Delta outbreak in just eight days of lockdown, just 10 days from when the first case was notified," he told reporters.</p>.<p>Restrictions on leaving the city and gatherings will remain in place for at least two weeks.</p>.<p>Authorities also announced a snap three-day lockdown for the northern city of Cairns, after a taxi driver spent 10 days infectious in the 150,000-strong community.</p>.<p>They will join millions of people in Melbourne and Sydney under stay-at-home orders, with Australia's biggest city about to enter a seventh week of lockdown.</p>.<p>New South Wales state recorded 262 new cases Sunday, taking the outbreak that began in Sydney in mid-June to more than 5,000 cases.</p>.<p>State premier Gladys Berejiklian urged Sydney residents to get jabbed, with supermarket and fast-food workers taking priority in a fresh vaccination drive Sunday.</p>.<p>"This is a race. We're keen to sprint to get those vaccination rates up," she said.</p>.<p>Limited supply and pockets of vaccine hesitancy have slowed efforts to inoculate Australians, with just over 20 percent of the population now fully vaccinated.</p>.<p>Health officials are now expecting supplies will be boosted in September, with the Moderna vaccine arriving for the first time and Pfizer imports set to increase.</p>.<p>Australia managed to avoid the worst of the pandemic for the past 18 months, but lockdowns have struggled to contain repeated outbreaks of the highly-infection Delta variant.</p>.<p>The nation has recorded about 36,000 cases of Covid-19 and 935 related deaths to date in a population of 25 million.</p>