WA lockdown LIVE: Perth, Peel thrown into snap lockdown after COVID-19 escapes quarantine hotel
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By Fran Rimrod
Premier Mark McGowan has waved off suggestions there were issues within WAâs quarantine system, saying what happened was part of the risk the state took âhaving returning Australiansâ.
âThis is the risk. Hotels were not built for this purpose,â he said.
âBut this is the only solution we have at this point in time. There are still 35,000 Australians overseas. If Western Australia wants to participate, the risk is out there.â
Four Points hotel to continue being used for quarantine despite transmission mystery
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Health authorities and police will continue to use the Four Points hotel in the Perth CBD as a quarantine facility while investigating how a security guard caught the more contagious UK COVID-19 strain while working there last week.
WA Police Commissioner Chris Dawson said he had not received any advice from WA Health to suggest they stop using the hotel, where four COVID-positive cases are staying, including two UK variant cases and one case with the South African strain.
WA Police Commissioner Chris Dawson said the hotel would continue to be used.
School holidays extended and some surgeries cancelled
Students in the regions will be given an extra week holiday, the premier said. For a majority of schools, school was due to start tomorrow. That has now been put on hold, and schools will be closed until next week, following the lockdown measures. It is in effect an extension of the school holidays. Elective surgery and procedures for categories two and three will be suspended from Tuesday, 2 February, and category one and urgent category two surgery will continue, he added.
Perth s CBD will once more be deserted after Premier Mark McGowan announced a five-day lockdown.(Sharon Smith)
An urgent alert has been issued for 15 venues in Perth after they were visited by a security guard working at a quarantine hotel who tested positive to Covid.
The city, along with the Peel region and Western Australia s South West, will enter a harsh five-day lockdown from 6pm on Sunday after the man in his 20s returned the positive result.
Residents who visited any of the 15 locations, including a Coles supermarket, a KFC and a 7-Eleven at specific dates and times have been told to get tested immediately and self-isolate until they receive a negative result.
The venues are spread across the suburbs of Maylands, Midland, Morley, Cloverdale, Burswood, North Perth, Perth and Nedlands.