Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews wants to open international borders as soon as possible, but said Australia is not at that point at the moment.
News Corp newspapers reported the Morrison government's national security committee will meet on Monday where it is expected to agree to reopening Australia to tourists within two or three weeks.
"We don't have all of the information that we need to be able to take the decision to open, but we are very close," Ms Andrews told ABC's Insiders program on Sunday.
"We are going through the process of preparing to open, and we will continue to talk to the health professionals.
"So as soon as they say yes, we will work with the states and territories and we will reopen our international borders to tourists."
It comes as Australia recorded 44 COVID-related deaths on Sunday, 28 in NSW, nine in Queensland, six in Victoria and 1 in Tasmania.
There are 7,893 new COVID-19 cases in NSW, down from 8,389 on Saturday, and the lowest daily case number in the state since 28 December.
The number of patients in hospital also fell from 2,337 to 2,321, and of those patients, 147 are in ICU, down from 152 on Saturday.
Over in Victoria, the state government said there were 7,169 new COVID-19 cases, taking the total number of active infections in the state to 60,917.
Of those cases, 562 are in hospitals, down from 687 on Saturday, and the number of patients in ICU is 73 and 28 of them are on ventilators.
In Queensland, seven of the nine deaths were aged care residents, and 5,746 new cases were reported.
There are 726 patients being treated for COVID-19 in hospital and another 47 people are in intensive care.
Deputy Premier Steven Miles said only four of the dead had received two doses of a vaccine, and none had had a booster.
"The staff and the residents should all be double vaccinated and boosted," Mr Miles told reporters on Sunday.
"Now they're not, we know they're not because it's coming through in the death figures.
"We can't get data though to tell us how many residents have been boosted, which aged care facilities are all boosted, which are below targets, where the Commonwealth has been and where they haven't been, and so it's very difficult to see where we can assist."
The ACT has announced 323 new coronavirus cases, continuing a steady decline after hitting daily infections of over 1,000 at one stage after the Omicron variant first hit the country.
There were no new deaths to add to the toll of 28 since the pandemic began in 2020.
There were 60 people in ACT hospitals with the virus as of 8pm on Saturday, including two in intensive care with one requiring ventilation.
One million children vaccinated
The numbers come as Australia reached a COVID-19 vaccine milestone on Saturday.
A total of 95 per cent of Australians aged 12 and over have had at least one dose of a vaccine, Health Minister Greg Hunt said on Saturday.
The country's level of protection is now "right at the front of the highest global vaccination rate", Mr Hunt said.
"Very significantly, over the course of today we will also pass one million children between five and 11 years of age having had a vaccination," he said.
This rate of vaccination for children is also one of the highest in the world, he said.
The milestone was reached on the same day more than 2,000 anti-vaccine mandate protesters marched through Canberra, monitored by police.
The demonstrators marched from Glebe Park in Canberra city centre to Old Parliament House, then to the Federation Mall outside Parliament House.
The large crowd had dwindled to a handful of people by mid-afternoon, a spokesman for ACT Police said.
