Western Australia's Premier has narrowly escaped a week of quarantine after he visited a Fremantle pub during a coronavirus "spreader event" on Friday night, as the state records a huge spike in the number of locally acquired cases of the disease.
There have been 177 new locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 recorded in WA, the highest single-day figure for the state on record.
Along with 12 travel-related cases, the total for the 24 hours to 8pm yesterday was 189 new cases.
Among them, 33 were the result of self-reported rapid antigen tests.
The state is now managing 574 active cases of COVID-19 but none are in hospital.
WA's daily COVID cases record was broken again yesterday when 115 new local cases were detected.
"What yesterday showed is there is going to be growth in case numbers here in Western Australia of Omicron," Mr McGowan said, ahead of the release of today's figures.
Mark McGowan not required to isolate
Meanwhile, anyone who was at the Gage Roads Brewing Company between 4:30pm and 11:00pm on Friday is required to get a PCR test and isolate for seven days if they were there for longer than two hours.
Mark McGowan was there 15 minutes shy of two hours and is not required to isolate.
"I was there for an hour and 45, and I obviously didn't know about any of this at the time," he said.
"I just went there to catch up with a couple of friends, and actually see the new venue, because I'd been sort of involved in its creation.
"So, I went down there for a drink, I was outside at the outdoor area, I was there for an hour and 45, I had a couple of drinks, went on my way, didn't know anything about it until last night."
Rapid antigen tests were negative
The Premier said he was still at Parliament when he was informed and took a precautionary Rapid Antigen Test which returned a negative result. He took another one this morning which was also negative.
"Because I wasn't there for two hours I wasn't required to have a PCR test, so I followed all of the rules to the letter," he said.
Nine people who were at the venue have been identified as being COVID-positive, but some did not test positive until yesterday.
"They termed it a spreader event, I don't know if the nine were together or separate and acquired it," Mr McGowan said.
"There were some crowds inside in particular, so perhaps there were crowds mixing that created the nine cases.
"I actually expect that the nine cases were not together, that somehow it spread at the venue."
Pubs, nightclubs listed as Perth exposure sites
Gage Roads Brewery was listed as an exposure site for Friday night alongside the Cottesloe Beach Hotel and The Avenue nightclub in Claremont, which also carry the same seven-day isolation requirements.
They are the first publicly listed exposure sites to carry a mandatory isolation period of seven days since the government eased close contact protocols last Monday.
Mr McGowan said while exposure sites were not treated as they once were, there was a public health team tasked with identifying potential 'super spreader' events.
The Premier's visit to the Fremantle venue came after he earlier that day announced 51 new local cases in the state, a record at the time.
Call for WA border opening date clarity
Opposition Leader Mia Davies said the government was unnecessarily withholding information in its refusal to release any Omicron-based modelling or to say when an announcement on the border reopening would be made.
"We're still in limbo, we still don't know what's going on, and we still have numbers climbing in terms of Omicron in our community," she said.
"On the 20th of January when he made the decision to push back that date, there was a void of information and has been since, it's secretive, it's arrogant," she said.
"And I think if you can find the time to be signing cereal boxes with your face on it and having a pint at the pub you can certainly outline a plan to give businesses in the community some certainty."
The Premier confirmed he was due to fly to Sydney next Thursday on February 24 as he is required to give evidence in defamation proceedings with mining billionaire Clive Palmer.
Mr McGowan has previously said he would make an announcement about the WA border reopening by the end of the month when a review by Chief Health Officer Dr Andy Robertson was complete.
But he would not confirm if that announcement would be made before he travels to New South Wales.
"When we get the relevant advice, we'll make a decision and an announcement, I don't know the exact timing of that," he said.
When the Premier announced the February 5 opening date was cancelled indefinitely, he said he would follow health advice to allow a four-week review into the decision.
That was four weeks ago today.
