Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced on Tuesday morning that masks would no longer be required indoors once 80 percent of eligible Queenslanders had received at least one of their two required vaccine doses.

According to the latest figure updated on Tuesday, 79.6 percent of Queensland residents aged over 16 had rolled up their sleeves for their first shot, and 67.4 percent were fully immunized.

"This is another small step back towards life as normal," Palaszczuk said. "Queenslanders have done an incredible job all through the pandemic and this is their reward."

Her announcement coincides with new rollout modelling showing that at the state's present jab uptake, it should reach its 80 percent double-dose milestone about 10 days ahead of the previous estimation of Dec. 17.

Palaszczuk has said if that target was reached early, she would not hesitate to re-open the southern border to the neighboring state of New South Wales (NSW), which is still recovering from an outbreak of the Delta variant of the virus that began in mid-June.

That imminent border opening, however, is causing some concerns among health authorities who fear certain regions in Queensland are lagging behind in their rollouts and could therefore soon be at more risk from NSW visitors.

A report by the national broadcaster ABC on Tuesday quoted a consumer behavior expert as saying that more is needed to be done to win over vaccine-hesitant Queenslanders.

"There's always a certain part of the population who are really hard to get to -- to change their behaviors," Joy Parkinson from Griffith University told ABC News.

"Family is really important to most people, so if we talk about them being able to see their family, spend time with their family … I think really focusing on those good things is important."

Parkinson also suggested engaging community leaders to prevent the spread of vaccine misinformation.

"In those regional communities, a lot of people really look up to community leaders, for example, mayors, the local footy club captain," she said. "So getting them out there and promoting getting vaccinated is really important."

Meanwhile, across the border, NSW recorded 222 new local cases and four deaths in the 24 hours up to Monday. The state is well ahead of its northern neighbor in its rollout with 89.9 percent of its population aged over 16 now being fully vaccinated.

The state of Victoria recorded 1,069 new cases and 10 related deaths in the latest 24-hour period, and 84 percent of Victorians aged 12 and over are now fully vaccinated.