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Australia has reached 80 per cent full vaccination against COVID-19.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says a further nine per cent of the population aged 16 or over has also received a first vaccine dose although inoculation levels vary from state to state.

Mr Morrison has called the achievement "another magnificent milestone".

"A huge thank you to everyone," he said on Facebook on Saturday morning.

"This has been a massive Australian national effort and the work doesn't stop here. We are on track to have one of the highest vaccination rates in the world."

The PM also made special mention of older Australians for leading the way.

"Ninety-nine per cent of Australians aged over 70 have had a first jab and over 90 per cent have had a second," he said.

"That's just extraordinary."

Meanwhile, hospitals, aged care facilities and schools are among the high-risk settings where workers and visitors could face rapid testing under a yet-to-be developed federal plan.

National cabinet on Friday agreed that the federal health department and Australian Health Protection Principal Committee will work on creating a nationally consistent framework for the use of rapid antigen tests.

It will guide authorities across the nation on how often the tests should be done and the implication of positive results, while also recommending high-risk settings for the screening.

Australian health authorities have previously been cautious to expand the use of rapid antigen tests given they are less reliable than PCR swabs.

In a further take-out from the first national cabinet meeting in more than a month, states and territories will consider changes to isolation requirements for fully vaccinated primary close contacts, including no or minimal quarantine for up to seven days.

Casual contacts would only be asked to seek testing and isolate if experiencing symptoms but avoid high-risk settings until they return a negative result.

Victoria and NSW have already reduced the time most fully-vaccinated primary close contacts have to serve in isolation from 14 to seven days, while casual contacts can leave quarantine once they return a negative.

The federal government has also pledged to start vaccinating five to 11-year-old children, if backed by the national medicines regulator and immunisation advisory group.

Victoria recorded 1268 new locally acquired cases on Saturday along with seven more virus-related deaths. NSW registered 270 cases and three deaths, the ACT 18 cases and Queensland one.

The source of the Northern Territory's first community COVID outbreak remains a mystery, with one new case also detected in the Top End.

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The first group of England players, led by captain Joe Root and talismanic allrounder Ben Stokes, have touched down in Queensland more than a month out from the first Ashes Test.

Batsman Rory Burns along with spinners Jack Leach and Dom Bess were also on the flight that landed in Brisbane on Saturday, when the party was rushed away from an airport red zone.

They were taken to a Gold Coast resort, where they will spend a fortnight in quarantine before a pair of warm-up matches against an England Lions squad in Brisbane.

Players and staff have been granted exemptions to train at Metricon Stadium after completing three days of hard quarantine in their hotel rooms.

Twenty20 World Cup stars Jonny Bairstow and Jos Buttler will join the Ashes squad in Australia after completing their commitments in the UAE.

They will arrive well before the first Test at the Gabba, starting on December 8.

Root, the world's top-ranked Test batter, is hell-bent on continuing his hot run of form during the Ashes after a record-breaking year that has included 1455 runs and six centuries.

The 30-year-old has never raised the bat for a triple-figure score in Australia and is aiming to lead England to their first Ashes series triumph on foreign soil since 2011.

"It's the one series where you're desperate to go and stamp your mark on it and play with authority ... and come away having won an Ashes series in Australia," Root said this week.

"That's the dream.

"The most important thing is weight of runs.

"To be successful there, generally sides have to make big scores and you have to manage that well.

"That comes down to the responsibility of all the batters.

"You have to separate the mentality of what might be a good score in English conditions and understand the hard work and different challenges (posed by) Australian wickets and that environment."

Stokes' highly-anticipated return to international cricket is a major boost to England's chances of winning back the urn, after he took time away from the game to focus on his mental health and recover from a finger injury.

The powerful hitter was initially unavailable when England's touring squad was announced, but declared himself ready last month.

"I just took it day by day, step by step," Stokes told Sky Sports this week.

"I had fantastic support around me to help me through that and I'm just excited to get out there."

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NSW has added 270 new locally acquired infections to its COVID-19 caseload, while a further three deaths have been recorded.

Some 270 patients with the virus also remain in the state's hospitals, 55 of them in ICU.

Health officials say there were more than 72,000 COVID-19 tests conducted statewide in the 24 hours to 8pm on Friday.

Almost 94 per cent of people aged 16 or over have so far received one vaccine dose and 89.4 per cent are fully immunised.

Meanwhile, an increase in virus cases in regional and remote areas has sparked concerns Indigenous communities are underprepared for an outbreak as travel around NSW resumes.

This weekend is the first since restrictions have lifted on travel from Greater Sydney to regional areas for fully vaccinated people.

This week has also seen an increase in the number of coronavirus cases in regional communities.

The Hunter New England health district recorded more new cases on Friday than any other in NSW, representing 73 of 249 locally acquired infections.

Ongoing sewage surveillance also found fragments of the virus in samples collected from areas where there are no known cases.

At Friday's national cabinet meeting National COVID Vaccine Taskforce co-ordinator Lieutenant General John Frewen gave an update on the plan to partner with Aboriginal community-controlled health organisations to accelerate vaccination rollout, noting hesitancy continues to be a factor.

Doherty Institute modelling has found Indigenous communities may require localised health strategies.

Federal Labor pointed to an Indigenous "vaccination gap", including in five regions where the difference between the state's double-dose rate and the rate for fully vaccinated Indigenous people exceeds 20 per cent.

In the Richmond-Tweed region, 59.9 per cent of the Indigenous population aged over 15 is fully vaccinated while in Coffs Harbour-Grafton that figure is 63.5 per cent.

The Mid North Coast has 63.7 per cent, New England and North West 66.2 per cent and Murray 67.2 per cent.

NSW local government areas were on Friday declared "green zones", permitting travel to Victoria without quarantine testing, but visitors still need a permit verifying they are not infected.

This weekend is the last for the Qudos Bank Arena vaccination hub at Sydney Olympic Park, which vaccinated more than 15,000 people a day during some periods of the recent Delta outbreak.

NSW is now on the cusp of 90 per cent full vaccination but is setting its sights on 95 per cent before December 15, at which time remaining restrictions will drop, including for the unvaccinated.

© AAP 2021