Western Australia has reported its highest number of daily Covid cases since the pandemic began, while New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania recorded a total of 45 Covid-19 deaths on Saturday.
WA reported 257 new infections, a day after the premier, Mark McGowan, announced the state would reopen its border to triple-vaccinated arrivals from interstate on 3 March. Five new travel-related cases were also reported, taking WA’s number of active infections to 877.
Victoria recorded 20 new virus deaths on Saturday, as well as 6,820 new infections. There were 48,420 total active Covid cases and 365 patients in hospital, of whom 55 were being treated in intensive care and 13 were on ventilators.
NSW reported 12 deaths and 7,615 new coronavirus cases. Some 1,297 Covid patients remained in hospitals across the state, with 81 of them requiring intensive care and 40 in need of ventilation.
There were another 10 deaths in Queensland together with 4,919 cases. The state’s chief health officer, Dr John Gerrard, said the fatalities involved people aged in their 50s to 90s and four of them were residents in aged care facilities.
There were 414 coronavirus patients in hospitals across Queensland, a small rise on the previous 24 hours. Of those, 31 were in intensive care, down from 33.
South Australia reported two Covid-related deaths along with 1,336 new cases. There were 182 people in hospital, including 12 people in intensive care.
Tasmania recorded one additional fatality, a man in his 60s who was being treated for pneumonia and tested positive to Covid the day before he died, and 585 new cases. The ACT recorded 355 new infections.
The WA premier has said he will spend a week in hotel quarantine on his return to the state to avoid perceptions he will personally benefit from the timing of the state’s border reopening.
McGowan is due to fly to Sydney next Thursday to prepare to give evidence in the federal court defamation action launched against him by Clive Palmer.
He is expected to appear in court between 26 and 28 February, meaning his quarantine period upon returning to WA will coincide with the border coming down.
“It is a coincidence that, when I return, the border will come down a couple of days later,” he said. “It’s a coincidence I am unable to avoid. But I’ll be doing seven days of quarantine.
“I’ll be working from a hotel room, doing the full seven days, just so there can be no argument that somehow this was put in place to benefit myself.”
The government’s modelling has suggested WA’s caseload will peak at the end of March at around 10,000 daily infections, almost 500 hospitalisations and four deaths.
An official announcement on the easing of restrictions in Queensland is likely next week.
The state currently has mandatory quarantine for virus cases and isolation for close contracts.
Face masks are mandatory indoors and double vaccination is required for venues such as cafes and bars, cinemas and sports stadiums.
Victoria is expected to welcome the first cohort of unvaccinated international travellers to its newly built $200m quarantine hub within days.
The Victorian Quarantine Hub, which will replace hotels and become the state’s only quarantine site from April, will officially open to residents on Monday.
The police minister, Lisa Neville, and the Covid-19 Quarantine Victoria commissioner, Emma Cassar, toured the facility, which is located at Mickleham in Melbourne’s north, on Saturday.
Cassar said the hub’s open-air setting would “eliminate” many of the challenges hotel quarantine posed.
The site can accommodate up to 1,000 residents at any one time with standalone cabins allowing for constant fresh air flow, individual ventilation systems and CCTV monitoring.
Residents of NSW, Victoria and the ACT enjoyed their first night back on the dancefloor on Friday night, with some jurisdictions scrapping most QR check-in requirements and density limits.
The AI Group chief executive, Innes Willox, has said bringing Covid rules together Australia-wide should be a top priority for the next national cabinet meeting, due to be held in the second week of March.
But health experts are warning some restrictions may need to be reintroduced in the lead-up to winter.
The University of Melbourne epidemiologist Tony Blakely welcomed the eased restrictions on Channel Seven but warned new variants of the virus could emerge in the next few months.
