Australian PM Morrison defends lockdown strategy as daily cases hit record

MELBOURNE: Prime Minister Scott Morrison defended on Sunday Australia's lockdown strategy for tackling the coronavirus, saying it would stay until at least 70% of population is fully vaccinated, as daily infections break records.

Sunday's 914 cases of the highly infectious Delta variant surpassed the previous high of 894 a day earlier. "You can't live with lockdowns forever and at some point, you need to make that gear change and that is done at 70%," Morrison said in a television interview on the Australian Broadcasting Corp.