Perth and Peel plunged into lockdown after another local coronavirus case detected
By Benjamin Gubana and Lana TarantoPerth and the Peel region have entered a four-day lockdown overnight after a third case of community transmitted coronavirus was recorded.
Key points:
- A man in his 30s is WA's third COVID case linked to the current outbreak
- A "full lockdown" of Perth and Peel is scheduled to last until Saturday
- More venues have been added to the list of exposure sites
WA Premier Mark McGowan, who fronted a late-night news conference, said the new case was a man in his 30s who worked at the Indian Ocean Brewing Company.
Mr McGowan also said genomic testing had confirmed the original case, a 51-year-old woman who returned from Sydney and later tested positive, had the highly-infectious Delta variant.
"What is even more concerning is, this most recent infection appears to have involved only fleeting contact with the original case," he said.
"Based on advice from the Chief Health Officer, and effective from midnight tonight, Perth and Peel will enter a full lockdown.
"The lockdown will be in place for four days at a minimum."
New rules come into effect from midnight
The lockdown means people must stay home unless they need to shop for essentials, attend medical appointments, to get vaccinated and unless they're essential workers.
People will be allowed to exercise for one hour a day within a five-kilometre radius from their home, with one other adult from the property, but children under 18 are exempt.
Schools and day care centres will remain open but community sport is not permitted.
Restaurants, bars, hotels and other venues can only remain open if they serve takeaway food.
ABC News: Briana Shepherd
)The casino will close, along with other non-essential services including retail, beauty and hair salons.
Health Minister Roger Cook said visitors could only attend hospitals, aged and disability care facilities for exceptional circumstances, such as essential care, compassionate reasons, end of life and advocacy.
He said category two and category three elective surgeries would be postponed until Friday July 9 and could be extended further if necessary.
"Please do not call the hospital about your operation, hospitals will contact you directly to reschedule your appointment," he said.
"The secret to strangling this outbreak is testing, testing and more testing."
The lockdown comes less than a week after Mr McGowan removed remaining COVID-19 capacity restrictions at restaurants, bars, hotels and other venues.
Phase five eased restrictions were introduced on Wednesday, June 23.
Concern over fleeting contact
Mr McGowan said it was concerning the most recent infection appeared to have involved only fleeting contact with the original case.
ABC News: Keane Bourke
)He said the brewery worker had been in the community and "we don't know where he's been".
Only some of his movements were known, and the list of known exposure sites was growing rapidly.
"As you've seen in Sydney, the exposure locations are massive now. And so contact tracers have difficulty tracking down everyone who has been to one of those venues," the Premier said.
"So therefore once that happens, and sometimes it happens too late, you move to lockdown.
"What we want to do is try and crush and kill it as early as we possibly can which is why we're taking the steps that we've taken tonight."
He said the lockdown would remain in place for a minimum of four days, until 12:01am on Saturday.
"We hope this will be a circuit breaker which will give our testers and contact tracers time to nail down a truer picture of how far this outbreak has spread," he said.
More sites added to exposure list
On Monday evening, more sites were added to the list of public exposure locations that require people to test and immediately quarantine for 14 days, including a financial planning centre.
The Indian Ocean Brewing Company, which had earlier been listed under "test and quarantine until a negative result", was upgraded to that category.
Earlier on a 32-year-old woman returned a positive coronavirus test, the second person to become infected in the latest outbreak.
The woman attended the same northern suburbs gym as a physiotherapist who sparked new restrictions in Perth and Peel on Sunday after contracting the virus in Sydney.
ABC News: Eliza Laschon
)However, she had "only minimal contact" with the physiotherapist, which Mr McGowan described as concerning.
The 51-year-old physiotherapist is believed to have been infectious while in Perth's northern suburbs from June 22 to June 24.
Mr McGowan urged people to get tested, monitor exposure sites and follow advice from WA health authorities.
"This is an evolving situation but it's testing that will give us a true idea of the challenge we will face," he said.
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