Australia has recorded six new COVID-19 deaths, with virus-related fatalities across Victoria and New South Wales, as South Australia unveils its plan for easing restrictions from next week.
On Monday, Victoria announced 860 new COVID-19 infections and five deaths as childcare services in the state are sent rapid tests to help children identified as close contacts return sooner.
Victoria is managing 17,518 total active cases, the health department said on Monday.
It is the second day the state's case numbers have dropped below 1000, after reporting 905 cases on Sunday.
There are 378 virus patients in hospital, 78 in ICU are actively infected with COVID-19 and 71 have been cleared, with 48 on ventilators.
Health officials say virus testers processed 48,104 results in the 24 hours to Sunday evening, and 5030 people were vaccinated.
Victoria is now 87 per cent double vaccinated in those aged over 12.
The latest figures come as young children who become primary close contacts will be allowed to return to childcare after seven days, as long as they perform a rapid COVID-19 tests for 14 days.
The state government will distribute free rapid antigen testing kits to kindergartens and long daycare centres this week to help manage COVID-19 outbreaks in early childhood services.
From Monday, eligible kindergartens and long daycare services are invited to opt into a program to receive at-home rapid antigen tests for kids identified as primary close contacts.
South Australia updates pandemic roadmap
South Australia will no longer enforce state-wide COVID-19 lockdowns from next week when it's expected to reach its 80 per cent double jab coverage target.
Premier Steven Marshall confirmed this on Monday in an update on how SA will live with the virus after its borders reopen on 23 November.
"We will be very, very significantly reducing the Test, Trace, Isolate and Quarantine requirements," he said.
"In the past, we've had to take a pretty heavy-handed approach, quite frankly, because a single case could set off a cluster which would lock down our state.
"As of next Tuesday, we will no longer have the threat of a whole-of-state lockdown."
If someone gets COVID-19, they will still need to isolate for up to 14 days.
South Australian Premier Steven Marshall. Source: AAP
But under the changes, close or casual contacts of an infected person won't have to do 14 days, unless they are unvaccinated.
The "worst case" scenario for a vaccinated close or casual contact would be a maximum of seven days of quarantine.
ACT records ten new cases, one person in hospital
A new patient with COVID-19 has been hospitalised in the ACT, after almost a week where no active virus cases were reported in Canberra hospitals.
It comes as 10 new COVID-19 cases were detected in the most recent reporting period.
The patient is not in intensive care or on a ventilator.
Vaccine rates in the capital continue to rise, with 96.4 per cent of residents 12 and over being fully vaccinated.
Meanwhile, more than 100 per cent of population estimates for the ACT who are 16 and over have received their first dose.
There has been a rise in the number of active cases in Canberra, which now stands at 175, bringing to 1829 total cases in the ACT since the start of the most recent outbreak in August.
Testing rates remain stable with 1635 negative results in the 24 hours to 9am.
Elective surgery at full capacity set to return in NSW
There are 165 cases of COVID-19 in NSW and one death was recorded overnight as hospitals are given the green light to resume elective surgery at full capacity.
The 165 new cases were recorded in the 24 hours to 8pm on Sunday - down 30 on the previous day's tally and there were 50,453 tests.
The number of COVID-19 cases in hospital was down eight to 216 people, with 32 in intensive care.
Some 94.2 per cent of people over 16 are fully vaccinated and 91.1 per cent of adults have had their first jab.
In the 12-15 age group, 80.6 per cent have had their first dose, and 73.5 per cent both.
NSW Health announced last week elective surgery could resume unrestricted because of the state's high vaccination rates and stable levels of community transmission of the virus.
NSW AMA president Danielle McMullen said the backlog caused by months of restrictions in hospitals can now be addressed.
"The easing of these caps means hospitals and other health services can arrange their catch up work and their usual non-COVID work ... and be able to participate in as much elective surgery as they can," she told Sydney radio 2GB on Monday.
Victoria's roadmap criticised
Meanwhile, Victoria's chief health officer has criticised the national cabinet COVID-19 roadmap for failing to mention what will happen in the pandemic "recovery phase".
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton and health economist Stephen Duckett have penned an editorial in the Medical Journal of Australia.
"Disappointingly, the (national cabinet) roadmap includes no explicit recovery phase; it as if we could all soon heave a sigh of relief and simply move on," the article says.
Recovery would allow planning for workforce responses, prepare for worker burnout and staff recovery.
It would also include lessons from the pandemic across government, hospitals and primary care services, to discover "what went well, what went badly".
They called for the federal government to share in the health costs caused by the pandemic and said decision-makers should spend early 2022 "assessing and developing strategies" to respond to problems brought on by the pandemic.
Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton Source: AAP
Problems included health system delays, greater disadvantage, mental health impact, long COVID and health worker burnout.
Monday signals a vaccine deadline for residential aged care workers, who must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to continue working.
