COVID WA

WA will take a giant step towards living with COVID on Friday, as a whole raft of restrictions are removed. This is what's changing.

International travellers will still be subject to the Commonwealth's requirements, and will have to isolate for seven days once they arrive. Hospitals, as well as aged and disability care facilities, will be one of the few places where proof of vaccination requirements remain, and you will still need a mask. You'll no longer have to register for a G2G pass to get into the state, nor will you need to be triple-dose vaccinated. In effect, only two groups of people will have to isolate from Friday: people with COVID, and close contacts with symptoms. But anyone aged 12 and over will still have to wear one in places like: The requirement to wear a mask in many settings will be gone from 12:01am on Friday.

WA Health is reporting a total of 8,392 new cases to 8pm last night. There are currently 43,408 active cases in Western Australia.

Kimberley 781 (185) Goldfields 781 (167) Metropolitan 35,346 (6,626)

McGowan told 6PR's Gareth Parker the workplace mandate would remain in place to increase the booster rate, but he refused to identify a date or threshold ...

He had a really rough, very worrying four days but he’s young, they bounce back pretty quick,” he said. “This 20 per cent portion of the [unboosted] population accounts for 61 per cent of hospital admissions, with the estimated 1 per cent of the population who is unvaccinated responsible for 32 per cent of hospital admissions,” he said. “Although these more serious cases may increase, in the event of a further peak or plateauing of cases, any anticipated rises are within the capacity of the WA health system to manage,” he said. “The mandates have worked … we had to do difficult things, now, we have the best health outcomes in Australia, we have the highest vaccination rates in Australia.” “We have exceptionally high vaccination rates, we are coming off the peak of COVID-19 cases in WA and from Friday, we will see an easing of restrictions – it doesn’t make sense.” “The mandates will remain in place for the foreseeable future,” he said.

Speaking from isolation, Premier Mark McGowan has revealed how long West Australians should expect vaccine mandates to last, as the latest update on COVID ...

“We still need some capacity to have some of those rules continue in effect for coming months. “The mandates in the workforce are for three dose vaccination. It’s diminishing returns system for a tiny group of people in effect. “So all of that effort by cafes and restaurants is for less than 1 per cent of the population. There were 10 deaths, which dated between April 18 and 25. “The reason is this: The proof of vaccination requirements to go into a cafe or restaurant is for two dose vaccination, that’s what the technology is,” he told ABC radio.