Western Australia is still considering whether to reopen its border to Victoria, despite that state having effectively eliminated COVID-19.
Western Australia is still considering whether to reopen its border to Victoria, despite that state having effectively eliminated COVID-19.
Victoria today recorded its 28th straight day without any new infections, meaning it has now effectively eliminated the virus.
The WA government said earlier this month it would open its domestic border to states and territories that went 28 days without recording any new infections or deaths from COVID-19, with NSW and Victoria the only jurisdictions that did not satisfy that definition at the time.
Premier Mark McGowan, however, clarified on Wednesday that the 28-day mark simply referred to a threshold, and that WA would not automatically reopen to states that had eliminated the virus.
He said a decision would be made in consultation with the chief health officer early next week on whether to reopen to Victoria.
Speaking outside an Urban Development Institute of Australia WA luncheon this afternoon, Mr McGowan was defiant when asked why the state had not already moved to reopen to Australia's second most populous state.
“I’m not going to pre-empt what we do,” he said.
“We’re very cautious and very careful about these matters.
“For the past eight months I’ve been pushed to do things that would’ve been a mistake.
“I don’t want to make a mistake.”
Mr McGowan said a host of factors needed to be considered, such as the fact that Victoria currently had no cases being managed in hotel quarantine as it had not been receiving returned international travellers.
He pointed out that WA had been doing this for eight months and had recorded no community infections in that time.
South Australia, which recorded two new infections yesterday linked to a known cluster that escaped from hotel quarantine, was cited as an example of what could go wrong if the border was reopened too quickly.
Mr McGowan said today that WA would likely remain shut to visitors from SA beyond Christmas.
“You don’t know what’s around the corner and you don’t want to make mistakes,” he said.
Opposition leader Zak Kirkup declined to criticise the state government’s stance this morning, echoing remarks he made earlier this week in which he said he would support the advice of the chief health officer.
“You’re not going to hear anything from the Liberal Party that’s going to be critical of any measure that helps protect Western Australians and help keep them safe from COVID-19,” Mr Kirkup said.
“What we expect to see is that the government will consider the advice in due course from the chief health officer.
“I hope they make an announcement soon about what those travel arrangements look like so that we can all have certainty about the capacity for us to travel to and from Victoria.
“Again, we’ll be backing in the chief health officer’s advice 100 per cent of the way.”
