If you ever wondered what "living with COVID" actually means, you're starting to get your answer.
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Australia will hit 80 per cent full-vaccination of its 16-and-over population this weekend, a milestone set to trigger the latest tranche of reopening.
The week came with progress months in the making. International arrivals returned without quarantine.
Victoria and NSW, not always allies, flung open their border after months of isolation.
Tasmania waived a pre-departure test requirement for most states before Christmas.
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"Australians have rolled up their sleeves. They've kept their part of the bargain and governments are keeping their part of the bargain," Prime Minister Scott Morrison declared.
The Prime Minister's presence at a press conference on Friday was itself a sign of changing times. Just a month ago, he'd have had a fortnight in quarantine to mull a disastrous trip to COP26.
But that Morrison singled out WA and Queensland in his comments showed concerns that fractures in the Commonwealth will linger.
As if to prove that very point, Mark McGowan stood up to reinforce his preference for a hermit kingdom.
The plan, based on worst-case scenarios surpassing Victoria at the height of its crisis, won't see borders open until late January at the earliest. "We have done so well. We do not want to fall at the last hurdle," he said.
But avoiding that hurdle is cold comfort to Western Australians living in NSW and Victoria, who still have no guarantees they can return for the funeral of a family member.
And even where easing is occurring, there were more signs it will be stop-start. As a cluster in Moree grew to 54 cases, the northern NSW town was ripped from Queensland's travel bubble after the virus skipped the border.
Replacing state-wide shutouts with snap closures is progress. But it also carves out populations vulnerable to the virus, disproportionately indigenous, from that progress.
Australia is steaming ahead, but its faultlines are not yet fully closed.