(Reuters] – Australia’s most populous city Sydney is set to ease its social distancing measures on Monday.

While it’s only for those fully inoculated people, there is some relaxation available in New South Wales. This state, which includes Sydney, allows houseguests and outdoor gatherings to be allowed.

Dominic Perrottet was the state premier and he said, “We are leading the nation out the pandemic.” He called for “final push” in order to achieve, or even exceed, the milestone of 95% vaccines.

On Sunday, several hundred protestors held a demonstration against vaccination in Sydney. However, such resistance is rare in Australia where the number of vaccine opponents are in the single digits.

Victoria, in the southeast of Australia, was responsible for most of Australia’s 1 417 coronavirus new cases. Public health statistics also showed 10 additional deaths.

In the remote Northern Territory there were no new cases of infection. However, a temporary lockdown was put in place until Tuesday at midnight in order to control a slight outbreak.

Australia reached 80% in full immunizations on Saturday

“That should give us all confidence in terms of opening up,” federal finance minister Simon Birmingham told broadcaster Channel 9 in an interview on Sunday.

Australia lifted international border controls Monday morning for the first-ever pandemic outbreak, but it did so only to protect its inoculated public and those who had been exposed from high dose states.

Domestic travel in the United States and its territories is restricted because most of them keep their internal borders closed. The premier of Western Australia said that the state would reopen once it reaches 90% for double vaccination doses.

The number of COVID-19-related deaths in Australia is much lower than that of many other developed countries, with just under 180,000 cases.

This story has been rewritten to correct the spelling of paragraph 1.

Reporting from Melbourne by Lidia Kelly, Editing by Clarence Fernandez