Sydney was scheduled to reopen Monday, after the New South Wales population of 16-year-olds and over had been fully vaccinated.
Monday was Monday and 73.5% had been fully vaccinated. More than 90% of those vaccinated had received at least one dose.
Because people are eager to have their freedom, some businesses open at midnight.
At the 80% threshold, more pandemic restrictions will be lifted and New South Wales residents can travel abroad for the first time since March 2013.
New South Wales had 496 new infections and eight COVID-19-related deaths in the last 24-hours.
As Sydney residents return to work, and are more mobile, the infection rate will increase.
Dominic Perrottet, Premier of New South Wales, stated that the hospital admissions for COVID-19 patients and their infection rates were lower than what was predicted by modeling.
Perrottet stated, "So that's a positive and gives hope to confidence as we open ourselves in a measured manner we're in an excellent position to keep people safer."
"There are still restrictions. It is not an open-ended system. It's opening up in a measured manner. If everyone can look after one another and respect each other, it can get people back to work. We can also get businesses open while keeping people safe," he said.
Although Sydney's infections are trending down, they have not reached their peak in Melbourne, Australia’s second-most populous place.
Victoria, which includes Melbourne reported 1,612 new infection on Monday, and eight deaths.
The lockdown in Sydney began June 26, and the spread of the delta variant from Sydney to Melbourne and Canberra was stopped since Aug. 5. Canberra has been kept under lockdown since Aug. 12.
The majority of Australia is free from COVID-19. However, authorities warn that the delta can't be excluded from any state or territory.
New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory (which includes Canberra, two villages) are the only areas of the country that have reached the 70% benchmark. On Friday, Canberra will ease pandemic restrictions. Over 95% of the target population have had at least one dose, and 72.8% are fully immunized.
Victoria is still a week behind. Victoria has 85.5% who have had at least one dose of vaccines and 58.6% who are fully vaccinated.
