- Western Australia’s snap three-day lockdown will come to an end on Monday night, after no local cases of COVID-19 were recorded in the last day
- However, restrictions such as mandatory mask wearing will remain in place for the next four days as mass-testing continues across Perth
- Restaurants and schools can re-open, but gyms, clubs and casinos will all remain shut, while gatherings will carry a 20-person limit
- The state was plunged into lockdown on Friday, after a woman contracted COVID-19 from a Victorian man who picked up the virus while in quarantine
- One other case of community transmission was recorded on Saturday, while zero new local cases have been detected over the last two days
Western Australia’s snap three-day lockdown will come to an end at midnight on Monday, after no local cases of COVID-19 were recorded in the last 24 hours.
“I can confirm that WA has recorded no new cases of Covid-19 overnight. This is a fantastic result. It shows an immediate lockdown has delivered the results that we needed,” the WA Premier said.
“The short three-day lockdown has done the job it was designed to do. It was a circuit breaker we needed to limit community spread and keep our community healthy,” Mark McGowan added.
New restrictions
Residents will no longer be required to stay at home, but restrictions such as mandatory mask wearing will remain in place for the next four days.
Restaurants, pubs and cafes are allowed to re-open from Tuesday, but gyms, clubs and casinos will all remain shut.
Additionally, indoor and outdoor gatherings will carry a 20-person limit — with businesses also required to limit capacity to 20 customers.
Primary and high schools will all re-open tomorrow, however teachers and secondary students must wear masks and universities will remain shut.
Employees are allowed to return to their workplaces, but Premier McGowan asked for everyone to work from home where possible for the rest of the week.
“We need to be cautious as we come out of lockdown as the virus could still be out there,” the WA leader said.
“That is why a stepped approach is safe in the best way forward. We can’t go back to where we were like last week just yet,” he explained.
Cases explained
The state was plunged into lockdown on Friday, after a woman contracted COVID-19 from a Victorian man.
The man picked up the virus while in a hotel quarantine facility in Perth. He was allowed to leave the hotel after two weeks, and travel around Perth, as he’d tested negative to the virus before leaving the facility.
The hotel at the centre of this latest lockdown, The Mercure in Perth’s CBD, has now been linked to several outbreaks, with the Premier pausing the number of international guests allowed to arrive in WA as a result.
Along with those two cases of COVID-19, one other case of community transmission was recorded in Perth on Saturday.
This person contracted COVID-19 while attending a Kardinya restaurant, in Perth’s southern suburbs, where the two other cases were dining at the time.
Since Saturday, zero new local cases have been detected over the last two days, but close contacts testing remains ongoing.