The Informer: Chill the freezers, the vaccine's coming

Of course, not just the vaccines but their safe delivery, the logistics, the take-up rates and how they've been received elsewhere.

First things first, Victoria's five-day lockdown will be done with at 11:59pm. The five-kilometre movement limit and four reasons for leaving the home have been lifted but some restrictions remain. You can check the fine print here.

That has opened the door for a welter of socially distanced, COVID-safe events to go ahead - from the modern miracle of having kids attend school to special annual events and crowds returning to the Australian Open. Those fans at Flinders Park will need to search the doubles schedules for homegrown players as Ash Barty, the nation's last singles hope, bowed out earlier today.

Authorities are telling us it's all-systems go for Operation Vaccine Rollout to start in earnest on Monday.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says the Pfizer vaccine will be administered to frontline workers from Monday, with 35,000 people due to get the jab in the next three weeks. In Tasmania vaccination staff have been undertaking final training in Hobart.

The vaccine hasn't quite crossed the border into South Australia just yet, but the freezers have been switched on, the Premier says.

Queensland plans to start vaccinating 100 frontline healthcare workers on the Gold Coast before that ramps up to 10,000 people a week in the first month.

Disconcertingly for authorities, a federal Health Department survey of 4000-plus people found more than a quarter were unsure if they would choose to be vaccinated against the disease.

Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly is concerned by the 27 per cent of respondents who said they were unsure about vaccines.

"We certainly are concerned about that," he said. "That demonstrates that we need to continue to stress the vaccines as being safe and effective."

The survey found 64 per cent of Australians would definitely get vaccinated, a figure experts have warned may not be high enough to eradicate the disease.

In the US COVID case counts are dropping (yes, from appallingly high levels but dropping all the same). A former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention believes four factors are responsible: Americans are wearing masks, staying at home, there are seasonal changes and vaccines could be helping, too.

If vaccination rates across the world are your thing, this interactive will have you clicking for some time.

Enjoy Wednesday evening - particularly you, Victoria.

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