The planned reopening of Western Australia's border to the rest of the world on February 5 will be delayed indefinitely, Premier Mark McGowan has announced.
Mr McGowan called a press conference last night to announce the delay, which he said was due to the escalating health risks posed by the Omicron COVID-19 variant.
The Premier said the state disaster council met on Wednesday and he received advice from the chief health officer on Thursday morning about delaying the reopening.
He said a new date would be considered during the next month.
Some travel conditions were still set to change on February 5, including expanding the list of people exempt from the hard border, with a focus on those travelling into WA for compassionate reasons.
But those people will still be required to isolate for 14 days.
Reopening plan based on outdated modelling
Mr McGowan said the former opening plan had been based on the less transmissible Delta variant.
"Unfortunately, the world changed in December; Omicron arrived," he said.
"We can't just shut our eyes and hope that it is different."
It was during a press conference on December 13 that February 5 was set as the date for the hard border to finally come down.
During that announcement, Mr McGowan said he was very confident Omicron would not delay the reopening.
Now, the Premier has said there is insufficient information available on what the full impact of Omicron could be as the reason for backtracking on WA's reopening date.
"Except that we know because of case numbers it is a very bad situation," he said.
But Mr McGowan said it had become clear that a third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine was important to deal with Omicron.
He said his decision had been influenced by the fact many West Australians were not yet eligible to receive their third dose.
"The aim is to get it [the third dose vaccination rate] up above at least 80 per cent, perhaps 90 per cent," he said.
"But what we are going to do is review the situation over February and watch what is occurring over east and work out what the best approach is for Western Australia."
The state currently has a third dose vaccination rate of 25.8 per cent in the population aged 16 and older.
The Premier was asked what would happen if a new variant came along after Omicron.
"I can't predict what the future will hold," he said in response.
Premier 'sorry' for delay
The Premier said the decision would be unpopular "with many people as holiday plans and some family gatherings will have been disrupted".
"For that I am sorry, I understand exactly what that means for many people who had been hoping to reunite without any restrictions, but from February 5, there are enhanced compassionate exemptions," he said.
"If we proceeded with the original plan, we would be deliberately seeding thousands upon thousands of COVID cases into WA and at this point in time that is not what I am going to do.
"Especially when the science says we need to boost third doses and so many young children still need to get their vaccine.
Mr McGowan said initially information coming in about the Omicron variant seemed positive because it was potentially less deadly, but that was before its impact on the eastern states had taken hold.
"It's very disappointing for lots of people. Lots of people have booked holidays, flights and the like, very disappointing and hard for those people and families, hard for some businesses," he said.
"But if you have a look at the alternative, which is what is going on in the eastern states at the moment, they basically have hundreds of people dying, they have mass dislocation in the economy, in logistics, freight, and all elements of the economy.
"They have huge numbers of people not going to work, kids not going to school, hospitals overflowing with patients, hospitals in meltdown — that is what is happening.
"It would be grossly irresponsible of me not to act on the basis of that because to do anything else without high levels of vaccination would basically mean we would be responsible for potentially lots of people dying."
CHO says Omicron requires third dose
WA's Chief Health Officer Andy Robertson said while vaccinated people might not get as seriously ill with Omicron, they will spread the disease because it is highly transmissible.
"When Omicron came into the country, getting to a 90 per cent level on double dose was shown to give benefit," Dr Robertson said.
"Unfortunately, what we also found was that it wasn't protective enough.
"What we also saw was that adding booster doses to that mix really does increase the benefit; we will end up reducing our case load, reducing our hospitalisations, and reducing [patients in] our ICUs."
Dr Robertson said there was no Omicron modelling for WA ready to be released publicly, but he also maintained that WA's hospital system was ready for COVID-19 cases.
"People are assuming that we are trying to get the system ready over months to come, that is not the case.
"We've been working on this for a long time, because up until the last couple of weeks we had assumed we would be opening on the 5th of February."
Dr Robertson also revealed there were plans for restrictions in WA for after February 5 and for when the state reaches certain levels of COVID case numbers, but he did not elaborate further.
Decision 'devastating' for tourism businesses
WA Tourism Council chief executive Evan Hall said Mr McGowan's latest delay in the state's reopening was "horrendous" news for the industry.
Mr Hall said the decision would result in tourism operators in WA losing their homes and businesses.
"This is devastating for tourism businesses after two years of waiting to welcome back guests, we now have no date, no plan and no future for the tourism industry," he said.
"Most tourism businesses rely on international and interstate guests and most businesses will pay for this delay.
"It is horrendous and there appears to be no end to it."
WA's lead 'clearly squandered': Opposition
Opposition Leader Mia Davies said after two years with border controls in place, the McGowan government should have been prepared to reopen on February 5.
"West Australians are being told to continue making sacrifices to buy more time for a government that has clearly squandered the past two years," she said.
"This is an admission by the Premier that his health system is not ready.
"Now that the Premier has indefinitely delayed the reopening date, there is absolutely no excuse for our hospitals to fail when the borders eventually come down."
Shadow Health Minister Libby Mettam said the decision had left WA "stuck in a holding pattern while the rest of the world moves on".
Delay puts businesses in 'holding pattern'
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) CEO Chris Rodwell said it was "critical" the government provided clarity as soon as possible on a new date, as well as the conditions under which businesses should expect to operate.
"We should not underestimate how difficult this news is to digest for thousands of WA businesses that rely deeply on markets outside of their home state," Mr Rodwell said.
Mr Rodwell said businesses had also been relying on the certainty of the February 5 date to make operational decisions and many had made investments on that basis.
"While we recognise the WA economy has performed comparatively well over the pandemic period, businesses in the international education, tourism, events and other sectors will be deeply disappointed with the announcement," he said.
"As will those businesses looking forward to seeing some relief to acute skill shortages and supply chain pressures."
McGowan a 'one trick pony'
While business groups took aim at the Premier's decision, the Australian Medical Association of WA President Dr Mark Duncan-Smith said delaying the reopening was "a gutsy call".
He said it would give hospitals time to prepare, but there was still more that should be done.
"Ultimately, we already have an Omicron outbreak here, which is already doubling every three days and had begun its logarithmic growth," Dr Duncan-Smith said.
"And unless we introduce restrictions now similar to what South Australia has done, it may well flood and overwhelm our medical system in any case."
There were five new locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 recorded in the state on Thursday, four linked to the Cockburn Omicron cluster.
But the national president of the AMA, Dr Omar Khorshid, who is a West Australian, took to Twitter to say he was "gutted" by the decision and that Mr McGowan was "a one trick pony" when it comes to COVID-19.
"Many of us [are] both shocked, disappointed, and relieved at the same time," he said.
"No doubt public hospitals and General Practice in WA do not feel ready for Omicron but also little confidence that anything will change in coming weeks and months.
Dr Khorshid urged the state government to pick a date and stick to it, secure more rapid antigen tests and not wait for winter to open the border when the elderly and sick were already vulnerable.
He was also said the expanded border exemptions were long overdue.
"Don't pretend that the more 'compassionate' border arrangements are a major move, they're long overdue, but the hard border continues to harm many people and needs to come down as soon as we are ready."
Exemptions to be expanded
Approved travellers permitted to enter WA under the new expanded exemptions from February 5 will include:
- Returning West Australians with strong recent connections with WA
- Returning West Australians with family connections in WA
- Compassionate grounds including funerals and palliative care or terminally ill visitation
- People entering for urgent or essential medical treatment
- People entering WA for national or state security reasons
- People with specialist skills
- Commonwealth and state officials, members of parliament, and diplomats
- Other extraordinary circumstances approved by the Chief Health Officer or Police Commissioner
People who meet the criteria to enter WA after February 5 must self-quarantine for 14 days and face several other requirements including:
- They be triple dose vaccinated against COVID-19 if eligible (double dose vaccinated if not eligible for a third dose)
- Return a negative pre-departure rapid antigen test within 24 hours before travelling to WA
- Undergo PCR testing within 48 hours of arriving in WA and on day 12 of self-quarantine
- Anyone living in the home where they are isolating must isolate as well and also be tested on day 12
- Everyone in the home where someone is isolating is subject to mandatory use of the G2G Now app and WA police checks
For international arrivals permitted into WA after February 5, they must:
- Meet Commonwealth requirements to enter Australia under the arrivals cap
- Undertake 14 days of mandatory quarantine including seven days in a hotel and seven days of self-quarantine (if eligible)
- Undergo PCR testing on days one, six, nine, and 12 of quarantine
- Those rules also apply to anyone arriving from overseas via another state or territory
Several requirements will also be placed on domestic road travel including:
- Approved arrivals into the state via road must limit travel to 1,500 kilometres from road borders, to enable people to travel by road to suitable premises for quarantine in Perth from Eucla
- Entry into the state via the Kununurra border will be limited to only transport, freight, and logistics travellers, and border community residents
- Travel into remote Aboriginal communities will also be restricted
