CANBERRA (REUTERS, BLOOMBERG) - Australia's pharmaceutical regulator has granted provisional approval to Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Monday (Aug 9).

Australia in May agreed to buy 25 million doses of the Moderna vaccine, and Mr Morrison said the first one million doses will arrive in September.

Australia's most populous state of New South Wales expanded its Covid-19 lockdown to the rural town of Tamworth on Monday due to concerns the virus may have spread from Sydney into the countryside.

The state has struggled to contain a surge of the highly infectious Delta variant despite a lockdown of Sydney now in its seventh week. Neighbouring Victoria state said it would ease restrictions after reporting 11 new Covid-19 cases, the same as the previous day.

In Brisbane, capital of Queensland state, authorities reported four new local cases on Monday, the first day after the city came out of stay-home restrictions. Prime Minister Scott Morrison is under fire for the sluggish vaccine rollout, with only 22 per cent of Australians above 16 years of age fully vaccinated.