Australia hits 'magnificent milestone' with 80% rate of vaccinations

FILE PHOTO: Pedestrians walk through the city centre in the wake of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) regulations easing, following months of lockdown orders to curb an outbreak, in Sydney, Australia, October 20, 2021. REUTERS/Loren Elliott

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Australia reached on Saturday a full inoculation rate of 80% of those aged 16 and older, which Prime Minister Scott Morrison called a "magnificent milestone" on the path to becoming one of the world's most vaccinated countries against COVID-19.

Once a champion of a COVID-zero strategy to manage the pandemic, the country of 25 million has moved towards living with the virus through extensive vaccinations, as the Delta variant has proven too infectious to suppress.