Australia will reopen to skilled migrants and international students from Wednesday, Health Minister Greg Hunt has confirmed.
The news comes as booster shots are brought forward to five months following a second COVID-19 vaccine, rather than six months, to help tackle the Omicron variant.
"That reopening is scheduled, will be going ahead and has been reaffirmed over the weekend," Mr Hunt told reporters in Melbourne on Monday.
The reopening had originally been scheduled for the start of December, but was delayed to buy time to learn more about the Omicron variant that appears to be more transmissible while causing milder illness.
Mr Hunt said Australian officials are not worried about Omicron because, although more infectious, it appears to be milder than the Delta strain.
He said the "clear evidence'" shows that two doses of vaccination protect against severe illness and death.
"The strong, clear evidence is that all of the vaccines continue to provide very clear coverage against serious illness, hospitalisation and loss of life," he said.
"As a variant, it may well be milder and that could turn out, as many international sources have indicated, to be a quietly positive development for the world," he added. He said the government was willing to change the timeline of booster shots again if the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation recommended it.
The body previously declined to bring forward boosters before recommending a slightly shorter gap.
Adults will be able to get either a Pfizer or a Moderna booster shot following the latter jab's approval by ATAGI.
NSW on Monday recorded 536 COVID-19 infections while Victoria reported 1290 cases and two more deaths.
Slightly more than 89 per cent of Australians aged 16 and older are fully vaccinated.
About 93 per cent have received one dose while more than 670,000 people have had a booster shot.
Doherty Institute director Sharon Lewin stressed booster shots made a significant difference in protection against Omicron.
"All of that information that's coming in is suggesting that Omicron looks milder, but people that have been vaccinated with just two doses are less protected than they were from Delta," she told ABC radio.
Professor Lewin said she was troubled by the rise of anti-vaxxer protests in Australia.
While vaccine mandates would not be needed forever, she said workers in high-risk settings such as hospitals and aged care facilities needed protection.
"People need to realise we would never be in this position of such high vaccination rates, and so quickly, without mandates at some stage," Prof Lewin said.
She wanted to see countries such as Australia do more to ensure poorer nations could vaccinate their populations.
"Variants will continue to emerge, those variants are unpredictable and they are much more likely to emerge when there's lots of infection," she said.
"We need to really assist countries in the implementation and rollout of those vaccination programs."
Meanwhile, the federal government has extended pandemic support for small and medium businesses for another six months.
Businesses with turnovers up to $250 million are able to apply for loans of up to $5 million.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said they could be used to buy new tools, upgrade a commercial kitchen or improve a manufacturing production line, among other things.