As it happened: Perth goes into five-day lockdown after man tests positive for UK variant of COVID-19; Australia resumes NZ travel bubble

UPDATED: Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan has placed the Perth, Peel and South-West regions into a five-day lockdown until Friday.

Mr McGowan has revealed a male security guard in his 20s has tested positive for COVID-19 after working at a quarantine hotel.

Mr McGowan said the man worked on the same floor as a person positive for the UK variant of COVID-19 and he reported in sick on January 28 after working 12-hour shifts the previous two days.

The man and his household members have been placed in hotel quarantine and close contacts are being contacted.

But Mr McGowan said there remained a concern that the UK variant could be in the community.

Mr McGowan said school holidays would be extended until next week to match the lockdown and he encouraged anyone visiting those areas stay where they are for the week.

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And that’s a wrap for today. You can come across and join Monday’s blog here.

It will obviously be a big week for WA residents as Perth and two surrounding regions are plunged into a five-day lockdown, and borders start to slam shut in Victoria and Queensland.

Here’s a summary of the day’s top stories:

• Perth and two other WA regions – Peel and the South West – will be plunged into lockdown from 6pm on Sunday after a hotel quarantine worker tested positive to COVID-19.
• Victoria closed its border to some sections of Perth, declaring them red zones.
• New Zealanders will be free to recommence travel to Australia without quarantining after a six-day suspension was ended by the Morrison government.
• Victoria recorded 25 days in a row with no locally acquired cases of coronavirus, but follow-up tests are being undertaken by health experts on one uncertain test result.
• NSW reported no locally acquired cases of COVID-19 for the 14th consecutive day, marking one infection cycle with zero local transmission detected.
• Queensland has declared Perth a hotspot after a COVID-19 case was detected in the Western Australian capital for the first time in months.

• The Australian Open quarantine facilities are still holding three people – one player and two others who tested positive for COVID-19 earlier in their lockdown – according to Tennis Australia.

Before the cameras even stopped rolling on the government’s press conference, shoppers were swarming supermarkets and liquor stores in Perth and Mandurah.

People still enjoying lunch at the Como Hotel in south Perth might have been oblivious at first, but soon realised something was up as they began to stare at cars flooding into the car park of the new Dan Murphy’s next door.

Those headed into the bottle shop joked with each other about having their priorities straight, while inside the line to the checkouts stretched right across the store and the ‘collect a box for your booze’ area stood ransacked.

Nearby, lines for the Amcal Pharmacy on South Terrace and the tiny Coles supermarket on Angelo Street already stretched down the street.

A worker at Halls Head Shopping Centre called the lines there “insane” and a shopper at Inglewood Coles described “chaos”, with long lines inside and no trolleys left.

Paris: President Emmanuel Macron defended his decision to hold off on a third lockdown, telling the public he had faith in their ability to rein in COVID-19 with less severe curbs even as a third wave spreads and the vaccine rollout falters.

From Sunday, France will close it borders to all but essential travel to and from countries outside the European Union, while people arriving from within the bloc will have to show a negative test. Large shopping centres will be shut and police patrols increased to enforce a 6pm curfew.

But Macron has stopped short of ordering a new daytime lockdown, saying on Saturday (Europe time) he wants to see first if other measures will be enough to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

With 10 per cent of cases now attributable to the more contagious variant first found in Britain, senior medics have recommended a new lockdown, and one opinion poll showed more than three-quarters of French people think one is now inevitable. The poll also showed falling public confidence in the government’s handling of the crisis.

Reuters

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Victorian public health officials are in talks to determine how to act in response to the snap five-day lockdown in Perth announced this afternoon.

The Victorian Health Department confirmed the discussions involving Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton and his colleagues.

The department said it had retested a Victorian man in his 30s who had returned an indeterminate test result.

The person received a weak positive result last night which followed a negative test two days earlier.

The man is isolating along with his close contacts as a precautionary measure.

“Initial repeat follow-up tests of the case and those of close contacts are negative but further investigations are ongoing,” the department said.

Queensland has declared Perth a hotspot after a COVID-19 case was detected in the Western Australian capital for the first time in months.

Queensland’s health department issued a statement on Sunday afternoon declaring Perth and its surrounds a hotspot.

“Anyone who has been in Metropolitan Perth, Peel or the South West regions of WA who arrives in Queensland from 6pm [AEDT] tonight will be required to go into 14 days’ mandatory hotel quarantine. This timeframe may change as we receive more information about the WA outbreak,” the statement said.

“Anyone who is already in Queensland but has been in Perth or the Peel or South West regions since January 26 should come forward and get tested and isolate until get a negative result.”

The decision comes as Queensland prepares to reopen the border to NSW, with all travel restrictions between NSW and Queensland set to cease at 1am Monday.

The Australian Medical Association’s WA branch president Andrew Miller spoke to media on Sunday afternoon, as residents of Perth and two surrounding WA regions digested the news that they were about to enter a five-day lockdown.