COVID-19 in WA: State Government working on restrictions ‘roadmap’ for February 5 reopening

A “roadmap” outlining the COVID restrictions that will be enforced on February 5 – and how they would escalate as case numbers grow – is being developed by the McGowan Government ahead of the State’s re-opening.

Premier Mark McGowan said the exact measures that will be in place when the border is removed were still being refined but warned his expectation was “they’ll be tougher here than elsewhere”.

He could not say when the roadmap would be released but hoped to provide West Australians – and business owners in particular – with “as much” notice as possible.

Rather than having the harshest possible restrictions in place from the outset, Mr McGowan said he instead planned to progressively strengthen the response in line with daily infections.

“When you first introduce them, it may well be that rates of infection are low and rates of infection then climb,” Mr McGowan said.

“So therefore the public health social measures – which are mask wearing and capacity limits, all those sorts of things – essentially get tougher as time goes by based upon circumstance.”

The Premier said he did not want to replicate what had happened in NSW where restrictions such as QR codes and mask wearing were removed and then re-imposed days later as the Omicron variant led to soaring case numbers.

“We’re going to try to provide a bit more of a roadmap and try and avoid some of that but my expectation is (the restrictions) will be tougher here than elsewhere.”