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The WA government has released an updated list of exposure sites the Victorian man who contracted COVID-19 while in hotel quarantine visited after his two-week stay ended.
They include a Northbridge restaurant, Booragoon leisure centre, St Catherine’s on Park accommodation in Crawley and Southlands Shopping Centre in Willetton.
See the full list and exposure times below.
This is our last post for the evening, thank you for joining our live coverage.
We’ll be back tomorrow to bring you the latest on the lockdown for Perth and the Peel region, sparked after the coronavirus managed to escape hotel quarantine.
As of 6pm, all residents in the regions under lockdown will be required to wear masks, while stricter lockdown conditions come into effect as of midnight tonight.
Central to the government’s concerns are locations visited by a Victorian man who contracted COVID-19 while completing his mandatory two weeks quarantine in the Mercure Hotel, Perth.
He has since travelled to Melbourne, where he went into isolation and subsequently tested positive to the virus, but there are concerns he was active in the Perth community for five days from April 17.
Travel between WA and New Zealand has been suspended while New Zealand health officials complete a risk assessment.
A flight due to leave Perth for New Zealand on Friday night will not take off.
It’s been determined that no one on the plane that flew an infected man from Perth to Melbourne travelled on to New Zealand.
New Zealand Health Minister Chris Hipkins said travel was paused, pending further advice, as set out in Trans-Tasman bubble protocols.
The WA government has released an updated list of exposure sites the Victorian man who contracted COVID-19 while in hotel quarantine visited after his two-week stay ended.
They include a Northbridge restaurant, Booragoon leisure centre, St Catherine’s on Park accommodation in Crawley and Southlands Shopping Centre in Willetton.
See the full list and exposure times below.
Opposition Leader Mia Davies says the government’s failure to address systemic gaps in WA’s hotel quarantine system contributed to Friday’s untimely snap lockdown and COVID-19 spread.
Ms Davies said the Mercure Hotel was identified as needing improvements in early April.
“[The government] ignored this report, continued to use an unsafe facility, and that decision has led to community transmission and a snap lockdown for millions of West Australians,” she said.
“The Premier was elected on a promise to ‘Keep WA Safe’ yet his government has let the people of WA down and now we are all paying the price for the Labor government’s complacency.”
Despite reports of panic shopping in supermarkets, both major grocery chains have not imposed limits on products.
“At this stage, Coles will not be introducing purchase limits in Western Australia and our team members are working hard to ensure shelves are stocked with the items customers need,” Coles WA state general manager Pat Zanetti said.
“This is not the first time WA has implemented tighter COVID safety measures, and we trust that our
customers will only buy what they need.
“With Anzac Day this weekend, we know many customers were already planning to do big grocery
shops, particularly as our metro stores are closed on Sunday and Monday is a public holiday.”
Woolworths took a similar approach in the wake of the snap lockdown, which kicks in on Friday evening.
“As our stores are unable to open on Anzac Day, product limits will not be imposed on customers,” a Woolworths spokesperson said.
“This will allow customers to purchase any extra items they may need over the next 24 hours, but we encourage shoppers to be mindful of others in the community as they do.”
Residents and tourists in Dunsborough may have jumped the gun regarding the extent and scope of Friday’s lockdown.
Locals began rushing to the town’s Coles supermarket at 3pm – about the same time long queues began forming outside the local pharmacy.
However, the three-day lockdown applies only to people in the Perth and Peel regions, who are required to wear masks from 6pm on Friday and adhere to hard lockdown measures from midnight tonight for three days.
That means those in the South West tourist enclaves are free to go about their business, no masks or additional restrictions needed.
WA Premier Mark McGowan said the government put precautions into place after learning of issues with the ventilation at Perth’s Mercure Hotel.
It was revealed on Friday that WA’s Chief Health Officer recommended the Mercure Hotel Perth no longer operate as a quarantine facility around the same time a cross-corridor infection between separately isolating guests occurred.
Documents released by the state government on Thursday revealed ventilation within the 1970s hotel had been identified on April 8 as the riskiest among WA’s 10 quarantine hotels.
Mr McGowan claimed he received the report pointing at the unsuitability of the hotel on April 16.
Friday afternoon’s announcement of a COVID-19 cluster at the Mercure Hotel Perth and subsequent three-day lockdown has resulted in huge queues forming outside registered COVID testing clinics across the city.
West Australians concerned they might have contracted the virus or requiring a clean bill of health to travel have rushed to seven metropolitan COVID clinics after WA Premier Mark McGowan announced a three-day lockdown would be effective across Perth and Peel from midnight Friday.
There are reports of long lines at the testing clinic at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Beaufort Street in Inglewood.
Premier Mark McGowan has waved off suggestions there were issues within WA’s quarantine system, saying what happened was part of the risk the state took “having returning Australians”.
“This is the risk. Hotels were not built for this purpose,” he said.
“But this is the only solution we have at this point in time. There are still 35,000 Australians overseas. If Western Australia wants to participate, the risk is out there.”
Mr McGowan had requested to reduce the number of returning citizens WA took in coming months to mitigate the risk.
WA’s Chief Health Officer Andy Robertson recommended the Mercure Hotel stop being used as a quarantine facility in the wake of a review into ventilation systems in quarantine hotels.
Documents released by the state government late on Thursday revealed ventilation within the 1970s hotel had been identified on April 8 as the riskiest among WA’s 10 quarantine hotels.
An engineer who inspected the facility found the corridors had no independent airflow, with oxygen supply leaking from the adjoining rooms.
The review was ordered after a security guard working at the Sheraton Four Points hotel in January plunged southern WA into a five-day lockdown.