A woman in her 80s has died and 2,420 new local cases of COVID-19 have been recorded in Western Australia overnight, a significant jump on previous numbers and another new daily record.
The woman was from the state's Great Southern region and is the 11th COVID-related death reported in WA, which opened to the world overnight, allowing vaccinated domestic and international travellers in without the need to quarantine.
With three travel-related cases, today's total number of new infections is 2,423, with 843 of the new cases reported from rapid antigen tests.
The vast majority of new cases were recorded in the metropolitan region (2,192), followed by Goldfields and the South West (41 cases each), Wheatbelt (18), Pilbara (14), Mid West (10), Great Southern (4) and Kimberley (4).
There are now 8,419 active cases in the state, including 22 in hospital.
Premier Mark McGowan warned it was a sign of things to come, as the state heads towards a forecast peak of 10,000 cases a day in the next three weeks.
No intention to reinstate WA hard border
Mr McGowan said while WA's hard border had served its purpose, today marked a new chapter for the state.
"We don't have any intention whatsoever of putting back in place a border, but the border has worked," he said.
But he stopped short of ruling out future travel restrictions.
"You can never guarantee these things, obviously if another strain comes along that is deadly or a different illness comes along or something of that nature, no government can guarantee that," Mr McGowan said.
He said a new $12 million 'Wander Out Yonder' advertising campaign for the state, which will run in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria from tomorrow, was an important step in WA's reopening.
"While the next few weeks will contain the toughest challenge we have faced as we deal with our own Omicron COVID wave, better times are obviously ahead," Mr McGowan said.
"It's important that we are prepared for them now, to capitalise on the months to come.
"As more West Australians travel abroad for their holidays, we need to do what we can to balance that with interstate and international visitors into Western Australia."
He said a key part of WA's allure would be its high vaccination rates and incredible experiences.
Pent-up tourism demand
Tourism minister Roger Cook said the "phenomenally successful" campaign, which has run in WA since the start of the pandemic, would encourage people to come to WA.
Even though other states were easing restrictions as WA's level two rules came into effect today, he did not think tourists would be deterred.
"People have been watching the way we've been managing the COVID pandemic as a community," he said.
"We know from our research that there's a lot of pent-up demand for people wanting to come to Western Australia because they see it as a safe place and they see it as a vibrant place."
WA's incoming flight capacity sits at about 40 per cent of pre-COVID levels, and Mr Cook said efforts to attract tourists would continue as airlines increased that capacity.
"Bringing back tourists, bringing back all our tourism operators, building that resilience and confidence in the industry will take time and we'll grow our visitor numbers over a period," Mr Cook said.
According to WA's Tourism Council, about $4 billion and 20,000 jobs have been lost from the sector since the start of the pandemic.
"It is going to take time and support for the industry to recover the jobs lost, reputations damaged and economic diversity," chief executive Evan Hall said.
Failure to rule out border closure 'concerning': Opposition
Speaking from Denmark, Opposition Leader Mia Davies said she was pleased to see the state finally open, and welcomed the support promised to the tourism industry.
"It cannot come any sooner, it needs to be done," she said.
"The feedback we've had from businesses ... is that they are really at the end of their tether in terms of access to workers, the impact of the borders and some of the challenges that they've faced as a result of having closed borders for so long."
But Ms Davies said it was concerning Mr McGowan would not absolutely rule out closing the border again.
"We are highly vaccinated, we continue to go and get our boosters and we've done everything that's been asked of us by the state government over the last two years," she said.
"We need to get on with living with COVID in our community."
