The number of people in hospital with COVID-19 has reached a record high in Western Australia, as highly contagious subvariants of the virus become dominant in the community.
There are now 329 COVID-19 cases in WA hospitals, up from 320 yesterday.
The number has been rising steadily for more than a week, at the same time as WA Health cut reinfection times from 12 weeks to four weeks because the Omicron BA-4 and BA-5 subvariants were so infectious.
The previous record for hospital cases was 327 on May 18, when daily new case numbers and overall active cases were much higher.
The proportion of people in hospital with the virus has almost tripled since then.
Premier Mark McGowan yesterdaay expressed concern at the increasing pressure on the health system.
He acknowledged today it was a "difficult period", with COVID case numbers and hospitalisations expected to go up.
He repeated he had received no advice to reinstate broader mask mandates.
He has previously not guaranteed he would follow the health advice if the Chief Health Officer did recommend increasing mask rules.
It comes after Victoria rejected its Chief Health Officer's recommendations to do so, and federal Health Minister Mark Butler said last week Australia had moved beyond mask mandates and lockdowns to personal choice and responsibility.
Current mask approach 'pointless': ANF
The Australian Nurses Federation (ANF) and Australian Medical Association (AMA) state branches both want broader mask mandates reintroduced to curb an expected peak in cases five weeks from now.
The ANF described as "pointless" the state government's current approach of telling people they could wear masks if they felt like it.
AMA WA president Mark Duncan-Smith said measures like mask mandates should be introduced if hospital cases reached 350, to avoid other problems rippling through the system.
"This is what we're trying to prevent from occurring by bringing in masks earlier, to avoid other restrictions, cancellations of elective surgeries, other types or problems from occurring later," he told ABC Radio Perth.
Dr Duncan-Smith said voluntary mask wearing had fuelled the new hospital peak.
"If we break 350, I am calling on the government to widen the mask mandate, because we have to do something different than what we're doing today," he said.
"The mask mandate [should] include indoor settings where social distancing cannot be maintained."
Warning hospitals headed towards 'red zone'
Dr Duncan-Smith said it was crucial to stop the number of hospital cases hitting the 400-500 mark.
"That would take out a tertiary hospital in a system where we don't have reserve capacity, even when we have four tertiary hospitals," he said.
"The medical professionals in the hospitals have been the backbone of our COVID response. They are tired and worn out.
"July is on track to break 7,000 hours of ramping, which will be the worst month in recorded history."
There were 6,535 new COVID cases reported in WA on Thursday, along with two deaths — a woman in her 60s and a man in his 70s.
There are currently 34,527 active cases in the state.
