The Informer: It's all about jabs as COVID cases climb

Kids are inching their way into the pandemic spotlight, as another vaccine is approved for them.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration has given provisional approval of the Moderna vaccine for children aged between 12 and 17.

It now joins the ranks of Pfizer, as the only vaccine approved for children, and is the third COVID vaccine to have been approved for use in Australia.

The vaccine has been used successfully for the 12-to-17-year-old age group in the UK, Canada, EU and Switzerland.

NSW has once again broken its daily COVID case number, recording 1533 new locally acquired cases in the 24 hours to 8pm last night and four deaths.

The ACT also saw a record of 32 cases, while Victoria had 190 and Queensland had one.

Furthermore, almost 100 people in vulnerable western NSW town of Wilcannia have tested positive to COVID-19.

First dose vaccination rates for Indigenous Australians are about 20 percentage points behind the national average, even though this group was supposed to be a high priority in the vaccination rollout.

The four million doses of Pfizer secured in a swap deal with the U.K. earlier this week will double the amount of the vaccine available in September, the Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.

Australia will receive more than nine million doses of Pfizer alongside one million doses of Moderns in September, as well as continued AstraZeneca supply.

The additional doses could see international travel resume faster than expected.

Qantas reckons it could be taking off by mid-December as it prepares for flights between Australia and New Zealand Fiji, Singapore, the US, Japan, UK and Canada.

From February next year, the airline hopes to add Hong Kong, and more destinations in Asia by April if the federal government reopens the border in accordance with the national plan.

The Tokyo Paralympics will come to a close on Sunday. Australian athletes have so far secured 75 medals across the Games.

A ceremony will still take place, though a lot of the athletes are no longer in Tokyo, having left after their events were completed.

In some international news, documents detailing extensive planning for the event of the queen's death in the U.K. have been leaked.

An inquiry has reportedly been launched by the UK's Cabinet Office following the leak of the national plans to honour the memory of the Queen after her death.

And while we're abroad, in a very Brussels turn of events, doctors in the Belgian capital are trialling a plan to target mental health which involves prescribing museum visits.

Patients in Brussels will be will be offered free visits to five public museums in the city, covering subjects from fashion to sewage.

Did you know you can receive this daily digest by email? Sign up here

THE NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW: