No new WA coronavirus cases for a full week as Premier Mark McGowan lauds 'incredible' results - ABC News

Western Australia has reported no new cases of COVID-19 overnight, marking a week since the state's last positive test was recorded.

Key points:

• The Premier says seven straight days of no new cases is an "amazing" result
• The number of active COVID-19 cases in WA remains at just 14
• A program to test key sectors is being extended to FIFO workers

"That's now seven full days of no cases," WA Premier Mark McGowan said.

"[That] is amazing and incredible and terrific for our state, especially when we hear news of the case numbers from states like New South Wales and Victoria.

"Western Australia is in a very good position."

WA COVID-19 snapshot

• Confirmed cases so far: 551
• Recovered: 528
• Deaths: 9
• Tested negative: 49,892

Latest information from the WA Health Department

The number of people who have recovered from COVID-19 in the state remains at 528, with more than 95 per cent of patients in WA having recovered.

There are 14 active cases in WA including seven people in hospital, three of whom are in intensive care.

A total of 49,892 COVID-19 tests have so far been taken in WA.

Health Minister Roger Cook said reaching the one week mark of no new cases highlighted WA's strong position.

"But we cannot become complacent. We have seen how devastating this virus is and how quickly it can take hold of any community," he said.

"We cannot let that happen in WA."

FIFO workers set to be tested

Mr McGowan said the State Government would extend its testing study currently aimed at public schools to fly-in, fly-out workers in the state's resources sector, as part of what it has called the DETECT Program examining "the prevalence of COVID-19 in key sectors of our community".

The Premier has thanked the resources sector for going to "great lengths" to protect workers.(ABC News: Jarrod Lucas)

The regime intends to broaden the extent of testing across the state and include people who are not showing any symptoms.

"Resources companies … including Chevron, Woodside, Mineral Resources, Rio Tinto, and BHP will all participate," Mr McGowan said.

"It's expected that nearly 30,000 tests will be conducted during the life of this project.

"Testing workers in this way will provide greater certainty around possible undetected community transmission."

Coronavirus update: Follow all the latest news in our daily wrap

Mr McGowan thanked the resources sector for going to "great lengths" to protect its workforce so the industry could continue and help the economy recover.

"This is a great example of everyone working together to ensure this crucial industry was able to continue during the pandemic," he said.

Testing 'an important step': Chevron

The move to expand coronavirus testing to include the mining industry was welcomed by Chevron Australia managing director Al Williams.

"It is a big step and an important step in really looking at how we can put the extra measures in place to protect the health and safety of our community, and protect the health and safety of our workforce," he said.

Mr Cook said there were "strong numbers" of people coming through COVID-19 testing clinics, including 627 people yesterday — with 573 of those people swabbed.

Almost 600 people were swabbed and tested at WA's COVID-19 clinics yesterday.(ABC News: James Carmody)

"But we want to do more. We want to test more," he said.

"Our DETECT program will assist in developing an even stronger evidence base on which to make policy decisions, in particular, the easing of restrictions."

Find out more

Mr Cook warned people to maintain social distancing measures, especially during this weekend's Mother's Day celebrations.

"Please be in your mother's company, let her know you love her, but don't be in her embrace," he said.

"We don't want anyone, particularly those in our vulnerable communities, to be under more difficulties this year."

Unemployment in WA above 10 per cent

Mr McGowan said 80,000 West Australians had joined the unemployment queue since the COVID-19 pandemic began, with a total of 150,000 people in the state currently unemployed.

"We estimate the unemployment rate in Western Australia is now between 10 per cent and 11 per cent," he said.

"That is way too high and clearly we need to take steps to bring that down. It is catastrophic for many people, it is catastrophic for many businesses."

He also gave an update on public school attendance a week after students returned for term two, saying it rose yesterday to 73.5 per cent at public schools across metropolitan and regional areas.

Public school attendance has jumped to almost three-quarters a week after the start of term.(ABC News: Evelyn Manfield)

"Ordinarily the attendance is between 85 and 90 per cent, so 73.5 per cent attendance rate is very high when you consider the circumstances," Mr McGowan said.

On the first day of term two last Wednesday, attendance was less than 60 per cent.

Intrastate border relief flagged

Mr McGowan said the state's "road map" for easing restrictions would likely be finalised this Sunday after National Cabinet meets on Friday.

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It looks increasingly likely some of WA's coronavirus restrictions will soon be eased — but little is known about the plan to roll back the rules.

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He confirmed the easing of intrastate border restrictions would be considered.

"Clearly Western Australia is doing better than the eastern seaboard … that allows us to have more flexibility but I don't want to pre-empt what we actually do," he said.

"We are doing a lot better than Victoria and New South Wales and I think they will continue to have breakouts for a considerable period of time.

"I'm just hopeful that Western Australia doesn't follow their lead."

WA Opposition leader Liza Harvey said there was a "strong argument" for intrastate travel restrictions to be lifted within the state.

Your questions on coronavirus answered:

"You'd still want to quarantine certain vulnerable communities, but those tourism operators and hospitality operators in regional Western Australia are dying the death of a thousand cuts," she said.

"If those businesses disappear those jobs will never come back … they need customers."

No hard border exemption for AFL

But the Premier maintained the state's hard border closure would not be compromised by the needs of the AFL, which has been trying to find a way to resume games.

Dockers and Eagles players would need to serve two weeks in quarantine in WA if they returned from interstate.(AAP: Richard Wainwright)

He said he would discuss the arrangements of restarting the season with the AFL but at this stage, there was no way forward where players would be allowed to fly interstate and back for matches without going into a 14-day quarantine on their return.

"We can't risk infections coming from the east into Western Australia by providing an exemption of that nature to football, so we are not going to do that," he said.

"I know a lot of football followers won't be happy with that decision, but we have to maintain integrity of our state's border controls.

"The hub arrangement in which teams were going to move to Western Australia and play football was a great arrangement and I'd urge the AFL to continue to pursue that arrangement."

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2020-05-06 06:57:52Z
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