LATEST COVID-19 DEVELOPMENTS:
* A three-day lockdown has been imposed in Queenslan's southeast, including the harshest restrictions the state has yet seen, after six local cases were recorded.
* It includes 10km travel restrictions for people in Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan City, Moreton Bay, Redlands, Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, Noosa, Somerset and the Lockyer Valley.
* NSW has seen another death from COVID-19, after a man in his 60s died at home in southwest Sydney, as the state recorded 210 local cases with at least 32 in the community while infectious.
* The ADF has deployed another 300 personnel to help police with isolation and welfare checks, in addition to 250 already working in quarantine enforcement.
* Prime Minister Scott Morrison says the Astra Zeneca vaccine is "making a comeback" and is vital for the country to reach agreed upon jab rates of at least 70 per cent.
* Delegates at the Australian Medical Association's national conference have renewed calls for a no-fault vaccination indemnity scheme, which has not been finalised by the federal government.
* Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said he was confident the states would not decide to go it alone with future lockdowns once agreed vaccination rates had been achieved.
* Mining magnate and former federal politician Clive Palmer has announced he will launch a High Court challenge to Scott Morrison's vaccine passport proposal.
* Australia's Acting Chief Medical Officer Professor Michael Kidd said concern was high within the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, which met on Saturday, around the continuing outbreak in Sydney and latest lockdown forced by new cases in Queensland.
* Professor Kidd said Australia had reached a significant milestone in its COVID response, with 40 per cent of Australians aged 16 and above having received a first dose of vaccine.
* Across Australia, more than 200,000 vaccine doses have been administered over each of the past three days, while over the past five days, the total is 990,000 doses, with 12.2 million doses administered in total.
* Construction work has been allowed to resume in Sydney but 68,000 workers from the areas worst hit by the virus cannot go to their building sites.
* The Sydney CBD was declared an exclusion zone with taxi and ride share services banned as authorities tried to stop another anti-lockdown protest.
* Victoria has pushed out the interval between doses of the Pfizer vaccine from three weeks to six, to help more people get a first dose.
AUSTRALIAN VACCINATION NUMBERS:
* There have been 12,206,684 doses administered in the national COVID-19 vaccination rollout up to Friday, including 200,706 in the previous 24 hours.
* Of the total, 6,914,150 have been administered by the Commonwealth (an increase of 124,012 in the previous 24 hours).
* 6,391,251 have been issued in primary care (+119,594) and 522,899 in aged and disability facilities (+4,418).
* 5,292,534 have been administered by the states and territories, including 76,694 in the previous 24 hours.
* 1,630,960 have been administered in Victoria (+20,865), 1,473,867 in NSW (+26,872), 910,938 in Queensland (+11,879), 499,332 in Western Australia (+8,264), 389,217 in South Australia (+5,426), 161,592 in Tasmania (+0), 136,339 in the ACT (+2,244) and 90,289 in the NT (+1,144)
AUSTRALIAN CORONAVIRUS NUMBERS:
* Australia reported 218 local cases on Saturday, July 31: 210 in NSW, two in Victoria and six in Queensland.
* There were three new overseas-acquired cases: two in NSW and one in Queensland.
* The national death toll is 923: Victoria 820, NSW 67, Tasmania 13, WA 9, Queensland 7, SA 4, ACT 3. (Two Queensland residents who died in NSW have been included in the official tolls of both states).
GLOBAL CORONAVIRUS NUMBERS:
* Cases: at least 197,324,486
* Deaths: at least 4,207,954
* Vaccine doses administered: at least 4,049,305,996.
Data current as at 1730 AEST on July 31, taking in federal and state/territory government updates and Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre figures.
Australian Associated Press
