* Authorities insist Australia's successful suppression of COVID-19 has bought time to roll out vaccines. While more than 100,000 people have been vaccinated to date, the federal government previously committed to four million by the end of March.

* Australia has now gone almost two weeks without a case of local COVID-19.

* An influx of patients from Papua New Guinea has contributed to Cairns Hospital declaring its first Code Yellow in more than 18 months, and Queensland is speeding up vaccinations in the Torres Strait as a result.

* America's top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci has again praised Australia's efforts in containing the coronavirus and its emerging variants, saying the US death toll was in "a completely different galaxy".

* NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has received her first dose of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

* Wastewater testing in Adelaide has this week returned a strong positive result for coronavirus, prompting calls for more testing.

AUSTRALIAN CORONAVIRUS NUMBERS:

* Australia recorded no new locally-acquired cases of the coronavirus on Wednesday. There were 13 cases recorded in hotel quarantine: Five in NSW, five in Queensland and one each in SA, WA and the ACT.

* The national death toll is 909: Victoria 820, NSW 56, Tasmania 13, WA 9, Queensland 6, SA 4, ACT 3 (Two Queensland residents who died in NSW have been included in the official tolls of both states).

GLOBAL CORONAVIRUS NUMBERS:

* Cases: at least 117,556,000

* Deaths: at least 2,610,000

* Recovered: at least 66,621,000.

Data current as of 1700 AEDT on March 10, taking in federal and state/territory government updates and Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre figures.

Australian Associated Press