Qantas is offering lucky travellers the chance to win free flights for a year but only if they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Fully vaccinated Australian-based Frequent Flyers who are 18 and over will also be able to claim other rewards from tomorrow.

The airline has announced the launch of a major prize grab for vaccinated Australians to "recognise their role in helping the country get out of lockdown".

Free accommodation and fuel is also on offer, with international destinations to be included once borders reopen.

READ MORE: Qantas to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations for all staff

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce says the competition is one of the biggest the airline has ever done.

Speaking to Today, Mr Joyce believes the move will be "really positive" for the company and Australians keen to travel again.

"We know the national target is to get to 70 per cent and 80 per cent in each state, so we're hoping that will also recognise the people in those states that are a bit behind and encourage them to get vaccinations," he said.

"As the national carrier, we want to recognise those who have made the effort to protect themselves and the community.

"Getting vaccinated is an important step that every Australian can take that brings us that little bit closer to life as we knew it."

The industry had a "clear vested interest in the success of the vaccine rollout" he said.

READ MORE: 'Eighteen months of hell': Union calls for support after Qantas stands down 2500 workers

"For us, getting the vaccine rate up to 70 and 80 per cent means thousands of people can go back to work."

From tomorrow, fully vaccinated Australian-based Frequent Flyers who are 18 and over will be able to claim their reward through the Qantas App by choosing one of three options:

• 1000 Qantas points
• 15 status credits (which help Frequent Flyers move up between Silver, Gold and Platinum tiers)
• $20 flight discount for Qantas or Jetstar

Members will then be automatically entered into a mega prize draw to win a year's worth of flights, accommodation and fuel.

Ten mega prizes will be up for grabs with a winner selected from each state and territory.

The mega prizes winners will receive a year's worth of flights from more than 60 destinations around Australia, free accommodation and free fuel.

Recently, Qantas announced vaccines would be mandatory for all frontline staff from November.

Mr Joyce says the majority of his employees were in support of the move.

"Massively 75 per cent of our people say they think it's an expectation that their colleagues are vaccinated to protect them, to protect the community and to protect our passengers," Mr Joyce told Today.

"We think the support behind this is massive. It's very uplifting to see that support."

Only those with valid medical exemptions will be able to say no to the jab.

"We have a duty of obligation to protect our employees at work, to protect our passengers when they're travelling. We know that the vaccine gives you unbelievable protection against COVID-19. Why wouldn't you take that protection."

As for introducing vaccine passports for domestic travel, Mr Joyce says that was still under consideration.

"There are a few complications when it comes to domestic. We're working through that. No decision has been made on it."

Nine people were arrested and scores fined after hundreds protested COVID-19 lockdowns on the New South Wales–Queensland border.

NSW Police said protestors allegedly crossed the border between Queensland at Coolangatta and NSW at Tweed Heads.

NSW officers arrested eight people and issued more than 50 penalty infringement notices in Tweed Heads today.

READ MORE: NSW records 830 new local coronavirus cases, three deaths

Meanwhile, Queensland Police arrested one person and have started to investigate several other individuals.

Minister for Police and Emergency Services David Elliott said he "is incredibly disappointed" in the actions of the hundreds of people who took part in the protests.

READ MORE: 'We are not going to be able to hold the virus back'

"This is such a critical time for communities to adhere to the health orders and to limit movement," Mr Elliott said.

Tweed/Byron Police District Commander Superintendent David Roptell said officers responded "swiftly to disrupt the activities of protestors in the area".

"It is in the best interest of the health and safety of everyone across the state and around Australia, to comply with the public health orders, so we may see the end of lockdown," Commander Superintendent Roptell said.

READ MORE: PM says 'highly unlikely' Australia will return to zero COVID-19 cases

"Further inquiries will be made to identify those who were in attendance at today's protest and appropriate action will be taken."

Proactive high-visibility patrols were conducted throughout the area for the remainder of the day and no further Public Health Order breaches were detected.

The Ministry of Health have released 12 new locations of interest including a gym in South Auckland and a busy Auckland CBD store.They are within Auckland and are spread across central, south and west Auckland.Although not yet…

An Afghan mother delivered a baby girl just after touching down at Ramstein Air Base in Germany Saturday aboard a US military evacuation flight, the US Air Force said on its social media.

In a Twitter thread Sunday, the US Air Mobility Command said the woman went into labour aboard a C-17 transport aircraft during the second leg of her journey fleeing the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.

The flight was from a staging base in the Middle East to the large US air base in Germany.

READ MORE: IS threat forces US changes to evacuations at Kabul airport

https://twitter.com/AirMobilityCmd/status/1429221286341980163?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

The US Air Force said the mother began to have complications while the aircraft was at its flight altitude, typically above 28,000 feet, due to the lower air pressure in the plane.

"The aircraft commander decided to descend in altitude to increase air pressure in the aircraft, which helped stabilise and save the mother's life," said the tweet, which was sent from the US Air Mobility Command's official account.

Once the plane was on the ground at the Ramstein base, personnel from the Air Force's 86th Medical Group assisted in the delivery of the baby in the C-17's cargo bay, the tweet said.

Mother and baby were then transported to a nearby medical facility where they are in good condition.

Ramstein Air Base has emerged as a key transit point for evacuees from Afghanistan.

General Hank Taylor told reporters during a briefing at the Pentagon on Saturday that C-17s were moving evacuees from an airbase in Qatar to Germany to relieve a backlog of people at the Qatar base, where many flights coming directly from Kabul have been terminating.

On Friday, US military evacuation flights from the Afghan capital were paused for almost eight hours because the staging area at the US military base in Qatar was full, officials said.

Brig Gen Josh Olson told CNN on Saturday that the Ramstein base has a capacity for 5000 people, but extra facilities under construction should accommodate 7500 by Sunday evening.

Olson said he expects evacuees to stay for between 48 and 72 hours at the base. The US agreement with Germany states they should not stay for more than 10 days, he added.

Since the end of July, 22,000 people have been evacuated, Gen. Taylor said.

Of those, 17,000 have been evacuated since August 14.

On Friday, the Air Force said one of its C-17 flights from Afghanistan had set a record for the number of people ever carried aboard the aircraft.

A flight on August 15 that the Air Force originally said carried 640 people actually had 823 aboard, Air Mobility Command said in a tweet, after the initial count did not included 183 children aboard the aircraft.

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‌ New Zealand’s hospitality sector is concerned that new mandatory record-keeping rules will put the onus on businesses, rather than customers, to make sure people scan or sign in.It’s warning frontline staff will face aggression…

Australia's Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly has labelled NSW's COVID-19 numbers an "unfortunate" new record but says it is a "situation we've been planning for".

NSW today recorded 830 new locally acquired coronavirus cases, surpassing yesterday's record spike of 825.

Three people died from COVID-19, taking the total death toll from the current outbreak to 71.

These include a man in his 60s from south-west Sydney who died at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital after catching the virus at Canterbury Hospital.

A woman in her 80s, also from south-west Sydney died at Wollongong Hospital.

The third death was a man in his 70s from south-east Sydney who died at St George Hospital, where he acquired his infection.

READ MORE: Fears Delta variant of COVID-19 is more transmissible among children

This is the second death linked to the outbreak at St George Hospital.

The source of infection for 693 of today's cases is under investigation. Additionally, 137 are linked to a known case or cluster, 118 are household contacts and 19 are close contacts.

"It's an unfortunate new record. The number of presenting to hospital intensive care are increasing," Prof Kelly told a press conference from Canberra today.

"This is something we have been planning for 18 months, exactly this sort of situation."

He said the key component to dealing with COVID-19, particularly the new Delta variant, is vaccination.

"We've been saying that for some months now," he said.

"Just on numbers of vaccines, another record day in terms of weekend… 196,000 doses on a Saturday, that is extraordinary.

READ MORE: Sydney shoppers rush to Bunnings before stores close to the public

He said in just four days 1.1 million COVID-19 vaccines were given across Australia.

He said 80 per cent of eligible Australians over the age of 60 have received one vaccination, with 80 per cent of eligible Australians over 70 have had at least one vaccination.

"We're getting close to a 2 million a week mark. We now have 17 million doses administrated around Australia," he said.

"We know that one in itself can protect very strongly against the severe end of the spectrum of disease, hospitalisation, ICU administration and unfortunately death.

"We know the majority of deaths in the majority of ICU admissions have been in unvaccinated or partially vaccinated people … so if you've had one vaccination, don't hesitate to get that second vaccine of that same type."

Prof Kelly said Australia would look to countries such as the UK and Israel and learn from their experiences in terms of high vaccination rates and re-opening regions.

"It is valuable for us to look at those countries in particular. Israel very successful and widespread vaccination very quickly, the UK, had a discussion with my UK counterpart and their chief scientist the week before last around this matter," he said.

Sixty-seven of NSW's latest cases were in isolation throughout their infectious period and 19 were in isolation for part of their infectious period.

Fifty cases were infectious in the community, and the isolation status of 694 cases remains under investigation.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said today he is impressed by the rate of vaccination in the state.

"I'm pleased, very pleased, the vaccination rate in New South Wales is now quite extraordinary," Mr Hazzard said.

"I thank the residents of New South Wales are coming out in such great numbers to be vaccinated."

Nearly 59 per cent of people in NSW have had one dose of the vaccine, and more than 30 per cent are fully vaccinated.

In the last week 750,000 doses of the vaccine have been administered, Mr Hazzard said.

Majority of today's cases from LGAs of concern

Around 80 per cent of today's new coronavirus cases are in people in Sydney's 12 LGAs of concern.

"The entire public health team and police are constantly working with us to look at what we could do in regards to those areas that have consistent zero," Mr Hazzard said.

From 12.01 on Monday these LGAs will enter even stricter restrictions, with a curfew coming into place from 9pm-5am.

Concerns about Western NSW remain

Health authorities are still concerned about communities in Western NSW, Deputy Chief Health Officer Dr Marianne Gale said today.

A new case was recorded in Wilcannia, and another in Broken Hill.

"For the residents of far west, please come forward for testing," Dr Gale said.

"We remain concerned about the risk for anyone who has spent time in Wilcannia so please come for testing."

The number of cases in Dubbo and the surrounding regions is also increasing.

Two cases were reported in Orange to 8pm last night, but another four positive tests came back overnight.

READ MORE: Victoria fears uncontrollable COVID-19 spike

There are still fears numbers in NSW could soon surpass 1000 COVID-19 cases per day after a huge spike in numbers this week.

Prof Kelly said other key component to help with the battle against COVID-19 in the coming weeks and months is collaboration between states and territories in the Commonwealth.

"The very best example of that at the moment is happening in western in far western New South Wales, where we have an ongoing outbreak particularly related to aboriginal communities in that area," he said.

"We are working collaboratively on that and the Royal flying Doctor service going out to remote areas vaccinating whole groups of people and I think one day this week in a pub, as they are looking to actually do whatever they can to vaccinate as many people as possible in this outbreak area."

Yesterday some anti-lockdown protesters attempted to gather in Sydney's CBD, but were largely unsuccessful and were quickly arrested by NSW Police.

However, in Melbourne, an estimated 4000 people clashed with officers yesterday, and today the Victorian Police Commissioner said the protest was the most violent' in the city in 20 years.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says it's "highly unlikely" Australia will ever return to zero cases of COVID-19 as large swathes of the population are currently in lockdown.

Speaking to the ABC's David Speers on Insiders, Mr Morrison said lockdowns are "not a sustainable way to deal with the virus" and the strategy for the nation was to improve vaccination rates.

"We need to suppress the virus as best as we can," he said.

READ MORE: NSW records 830 new local coronavirus cases, three deaths

"The national plan then transfers our focus from case numbers to issues of hospitalisation, serious illness, ICU and things of that nature."

When asked if there is a chance of getting back to zero COVID-19, Mr Morrison said: "I think that's highly unlikely, but that's really not the point".

The prime minister also published an opinion piece today in which he warned Australians case numbers will increase even after the nation achieves the goal of 80 per cent of eligible Australians fully vaccinated.

READ MORE: Fears Delta variant of COVID-19 is more transmissible among children

"It's always darkest before the dawn, and these hard lockdowns are imposing a heavy toll," Mr Morrison wrote.

"They are sadly necessary for now, and we will keep providing health and income support to get people through, but they won't be necessary for too much longer.

"Under our national plan when we start hitting the 70 per cent and 80 per cent vaccination targets, we can start claiming back what COVID has been taking away from us. And when we do so, we must not be intimidated by the case numbers that will inevitably increase.

"We will be able to better handle them then, because of all the improvements we have made to protect people from serious illness and fatality."

READ MORE: Melbourne anti-lockdown protest 'most violent' in the city in 20 years

He said case numbers do not "tell the whole story" and a key focus should be on vaccinating children aged over 12.

"This is what living with COVID is all about. The case numbers will likely rise when we soon begin to open up. That is inevitable," he wrote.

"But our focus needs to be on the rate of people being hospitalised. That's the measure that should now start to guide our response.

"Rising cases need not impact our plan to reopen, and reopen as soon we can. I know it seems pretty dark now, but it's always darkest before the dawn, and dawn's coming. So please hang in there."

A study from the University of Oxford has warned that the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine becomes significantly less effective against the Delta variant just four months after the second dose – although it still offers some protection. The…