YESTERDAY'S round of COVID media conferences by Prime Minister Scott Morrison and the various state and territory leaders revolved around the equation at the heart of an Australian coronavirus recovery: that case numbers can be - and should be - suppressed until modelled vaccination targets are reached.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian was again the bearer of unwanted news.
The state had 1431 new cases, more than 10 per cent above the previous peak.
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As they do daily, the premier and her team hammered home the importance of vaccination as the key to ending the groundhog day grind of lockdown.
The premier - and other leaders, no doubt - will have access to modelling that the rest of us cannot see.
Ms Berejiklian spent time yesterday preparing NSW for further increases in case numbers, saying it may be another fortnight before they peak.
The hope is that vaccination rates rise quickly enough to drive down the infection rate.
Falling case numbers would pave the way for the lifting of restrictions and the start of whatever "new normal" will look like in a world where "living with Delta" is a seemingly unavoidable reality.
Mr Morrison had good news, in the form of a Pfizer vaccine swap with the UK.
Australia will receive the first batch, from a total of four million jabs, almost immediately.
The same number of shots, which would have come here, but later on, will now be added to the UK's stockpile for booster shots.
Such protection will likely be offered here, with Ms Berejiklian yesterday predicting that an annual COVID booster will be as commonplace as a winter flu shot.
The NSW government might be eyeing reopening, but elsewhere - particularly in Queensland and Western Australia - the emphasis remains on closed borders to keep the virus out.
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The ACT chief minister Andrew Barr was also on the front foot yesterday, adamant that updated Doherty Institute modelling showed it would take an 80 per cent vaccination total, if not higher, before lockdowns could safely end.
Deputy Premier John Barilaro said yesterday that any region still in lockdown beyond next Friday would remain so until NSW vaccination rates hit 70 per cent.
That predicted date is October 18.
Such an extension may well include the Hunter.
Another reason to get the jab if you haven't already.
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