National News

Coronavirus-free states have received a federal rocket about preparing hospitals for surging cases in the latest escalation of a health funding fight.

NSW has reached the 70 per cent double-dose COVID-19 vaccination milestone that will trigger the easing of some restrictions on Monday, after 15 weeks of lockdown.

The Queensland premier will not "necessarily" open the state borders once 80 per cent of eligible people are vaccinated, saying hospitals need to be ready for a surge in COVID-19 cases.

Facebook Inc has blamed a "faulty configuration change" for a nearly six-hour outage that prevented the company's 3.5 billion users from accessing its social media and messaging services such as WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger.

Dominic Perrottet has been sworn in as the 46th premier of NSW, vowing to make no major policy or personnel changes in the coming months as the state emerges from COVID-19 lockdown.

Planning Minister Rob Stokes is refusing to back down from his bid to become the next premier of NSW, despite a deal done to install his "good friend" Dominic Perrottet in the top job.

Australia has boosted its supplies of a life-saving antibody treatment for COVID-19 shown to slash hospitalisation rates.

Quarantine periods for fully vaccinated COVID-19 close community contacts will be shortened from 14 days to seven days when NSW begins to ease restrictions at 70 per cent double-dose jab coverage.

Want to win a million dollars? Well, it's as easy as getting a COVID-19 vaccine.