Lighter touch COVID rules start on Monday, but the infection numbers, in the Hunter and elsewhere, are heading the wrong way.
Testing turned up 97 new cases in the Hunter yesterday, which was 15 per cent of the statewide total of 646. We had 1014 active cases in the region yesterday, with 30 people in hospital, including four in intensive care. The Hunter total since the first case on August 5 is 1532.
Things are far worse in Victoria.
Yesterday's total of 1838 was the highest since the pandemic began.
Each state added five more deaths and NSW announced eight cases in Sydney of a new Delta variant.
As we have stressed before, Australia has had a light brush with COVID, globally, even with 1378 deaths from 118,000 confirmed cases.
And we hope the picture doesn't worsen.
But early hopes of COVID control by vaccine have waned.
Vaccines undoubtedly limit the spread and intensity of symptoms but the conversation this week in Spain - almost 80 per cent fully vaccinated - was not about eradication, but a transition from "pandemic to endemic".
Here, the end of lockdown is generating a noticeable spike in tourist accommodation and related bookings.
Our picturesque regional towns often rely heavily on the tourist dollar. Most residents know this, and understand a need to re-embrace visitors.
But they know, too, that tourism brings COVID risks.
From early on, health experts told National Cabinet that case numbers would rise once people began to travel more freely, and interact more closely.
Yesterday's Commonwealth COVID update showed 71.5 per cent of NSW double-dosed, well above the national rate of 60.2 per cent.
Variations between suburbs and regions are even greater.
Greater Sydney residents are officially supposed to stay out of regional NSW until NSW is 80 per cent vaccinated, but the new rules will bring confusion and police should use their commonsense enforcing the changing regulations.
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The onus will be on individuals to prove their own vaccine status.
"Digital natives" should have little problem registering their information online but the less familiar may struggle to navigate this first necessary step in "living with COVID".
Flashing a vaccine passport may be a pain, but it's part of an armoury designed to stop people dying from COVID.
