Did the PM for NSW just wave his vaccine wand?

With the pandemic has come additions to the ever-growing list of words that grind gears the world over. "Milestone" is now on that list.

Milestones were once terrific. Back in the day they literally marked miles between towns, but more recently they evolved into bookmarks of achievements and significant moments. Now, I just associate them with another tragic toll.

For instance - yesterday Australia hit the "grim milestone" of 1000 COVID-related deaths. Also a man from Dubbo in NSW became the first Indigenous man to die with COVID-19.

Today's milestone? That NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard actually said out loud what most of NSW already knew - that stocks of Pfizer are phast pfizzing out.

But barely hours later the PM, replete with flag facemask, popped up to tell us it was Singapore to the rescue. They'll bolster our well-behind jab rollout with 500,000 Pfizer vaccines next week and we'll repay them in December.

So, problem solved, Mr Hazzard. Not quite so simple will be the apportion of said vaccines. To keep all the states happy, wizardry of Hogwarts-like intensity will be an essential.

Well no, not even that. Mr Morrison said today the vaccines would be distributed based on population with 159,236 set for NSW and 131,149 heading to Victoria. So that leaves just a few hundred thousand on the shelf in WA then ... (?)

Another "milestone" of sorts came today in the strategic change of tack from anti-lockdown protesters. Forget the big whoop-up in Sydney, mini-protests were the go across NSW.

NSW police said there were 69 small protests - the majority in Sydney but also in regional centres such as Orange and Tamworth. More than 400 fines were issued and 135 people arrested.

While the ACT's lockdown will extended until midnight on September 17, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews was a bit more upbeat. He is expected to announce some changes to COVID restrictions tomorrow but he did caution they'd be only tweaks not wholesale changes.

Over the ditch, New Zealand authorities believe they may have their latest outbreak under control. The 49 cases announced on Tuesday, all in Auckland, are down from 53 announced on Monday and 83 on Sunday.

Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield forecast further drops in case numbers over the coming days.

"Based on our updated modelling, the reproduction rate of the virus in this outbreak is now looking like it is remaining under one," he said. "This means cases will continue to decline and we are successfully breaking the chain of transmission."

Surely that ranks as a milestone of sorts these days?

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