- As Western Australians prepare to exit its three-day snap lockdown, New South Wales has discouraged Premier Mark McGowan from reducing international arrival limits
- The comments come after the WA Premier slashed international arrivals in half for a month following two community-spread cases of COVID-19
- The cases originate from an eastern states traveller who contracted the virus in hotel quarantine before spending five days in the Perth community
- NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she would be “disappointed” if a single incident led to more international arrivals being reduced in WA
- She said doing so puts more pressure on New South Wales’ ability to accept returned travellers, with the “vast majority” of overseas arrivals already coming through Sydney airport
As Western Australians prepare to exit its three-day snap lockdown, New South Wales has discouraged Premier Mark McGowan from reducing international arrival limits.
The Perth lockdown began at 11:59 pm on Friday, April 23, after a traveller from the eastern states unknowingly caught COVID-19 while in hotel quarantine and spread it into the WA community. So far, there have been two confirmed community cases of COVID-19 in the state.
Premier Mark McGowan subsequently slashed international arrivals by half on the weekend, saying the Federal Government has agreed that for the next month, the state is allowed to only accept 512 returning Australians from overseas per week instead of 1025.
The WA Premier has also called for Canberra to open military bases and Christmas Island to quarantine returning travellers — an idea shot down by Defence Minister Peter Dutton, who said places like military bases are not appropriate for temporary visits from overseas travellers.
New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian has also come forward and urged WA to not reduce its cap on international visitors, claiming that doing so would put more pressure on NSW to take in extra arrivals.
She said already, her state has been taking in the “overwhelming majority” of Australians coming home from overseas through Sydney Airport.
“I’d be disappointed if, because of an incident, a premier decided they didn’t want to welcome as many people home, because it does put extra pressure on New South Wales,” she told reporters.
The Premier added that leaks in the hotel quarantine system were inevitable, and these are just problems state governments will need to deal with as they arise.
“These incidents are going to happen. We deal with it,” she said.
Though a high-risk COVID warning has been issued to several areas across the Perth and Peel region, so far only two new cases of COVID-19 have appeared since it was first discovered the traveller was positive after leaving hotel quarantine.
The WA Premier announced earlier today that the three-day snap lockdown will be lifted tonight from 12:01 am AWST, albeit with some restrictions remaining in place for Perth and Peel residents.