Western Australia has recorded a dip in the number of new COVID-19 cases, although the number of active infections continues to rise.
In the 24 hours to 8pm last night, 6,176 new infections were reported.
The number of people in hospital has slightly risen to 134, including four in ICU.
There are now 33,101 active cases in the state.
The majority of today’s cases, 3,177, came from rapid antigen tests, representing a drop of about 600 from yesterday.
The remaining 2,999 cases were detected from 14,766 PCR swabs, which were also down by about 1,000 on yesterday’s numbers.
More RAT handouts to come
From today, commuters across Perth are being offered free rapid antigen tests (RATs) at a number of train stations.
Additional pop-ups will be run at shopping centres, universities and TAFE campuses in the coming weeks.
Fans will also be able to get their hands on RATs at Perth Wildcats and West Coast Eagles games this weekend, with regional areas to start seeing their first pop-ups from March 28.
The handouts are part of an expansion of the government's efforts to get more tests into the community, announced earlier this week.
A total of 500,000 tests will be distributed, on top of the 15 made available to each household.
Case numbers grow in regions
The number of COVID19 cases continue to rise in the regions, with 3,113 of the state's active cases reported outside Perth.
The Pilbara had the highest number of cases per 1,000 people in the regions at about 10, compared to about 14.6 per 1,000 in Perth.
Active infections are growing fastest in the Kimberley, which jumped from 33 last Friday to 305 today.
The Royal Flying Doctor Service, which has been preparing for the spread of the virus in regional areas, said it had so far transported nine coronavirus patients this month.
Of those, three were from the Goldfields, as well as two each from the Kimberley and Great Southern.
Private hospital elective surgery scaled back
From Monday, fewer category three and non-urgent category two elective surgeries will be carried out in private hospitals.
The pause on bookings follows similar moves in the public sector, which started a two-month "scale down" earlier this week.
But the head of the Australian Medical Association in WA has called for the decision to be reconsidered, especially because of the flow-on effects of cancelling elective surgery.
"At the moment it appears the private system is going to sit idle," Mark Duncan-Smith said.
"We're not expecting the private system to have to pick up the slack next week at all."
Dr Duncan-Smith said that could be partially attributed to significantly fewer hospital admissions than had been expected.
He said the system had been preparing to have about 20 ICU patients at this time, but instead only has four.
But Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson said the plan was still for the private pause to begin on Monday.
"As has previously been outlined, the operational decision to pause elective surgery bookings for a short time during the peak of the outbreak is being continuously reviewed," she said.
"The Chief Health Officer has predicted that the peak of hospitalisations will occur within a week to nine days after the caseload peak."
