Anatomy of a Covid lockdown: How Perth security guard was doing 12-hour shifts in a quarantine hotel and working as a ride share driver - and exposed THOUSANDS to the virus by moving through city for up to FIVE DAYS while infectious
Perth hotel quarantine security guard tested positive for Covid on Saturday
Urgent genome sequencing underway to work out how man contracted virus
Parts of Western Australia have entered harsh five-day lockdown amid new case
Health authorities have identified 15 potential exposure sites visited by the man
Infectious from January 26 until testing positive on January 30 - five days
The streets of Perth have been turned into a ghost town as 2 million residents adjust to life under a lockdown which medical chiefs warn could last more than five days.
Pictures from the city show the normally bustling Cottesloe Beach empty despite temperatures soaring to 36C on Monday, the first full day of stay-at-home orders.
Street malls and shopping centres usually full of shoppers have been left deserted, with most businesses forced to shut during the harsh five-day lockdown enforced after a security guard at a quarantine hotel contracted Covid.
Residents have seemingly answered the call put out by Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan to do your duty: stay home unless it s for one of the four approved reasons .
Peter Dutton has accused Mark McGowan of imposing a harsh five-day lockdown in Western Australia to boost his chances of re-election.
The premier on Sunday imposed stay-at-home orders for 80 per cent of the state s population after a single hotel quarantine security guard caught coronavirus.
The Home Affairs Minister said Mr McGowan had over-reacted because he doesn t want to jeopardise his chances at the polls in March if more infections emerge.
Peter Dutton has accused Mark McGowan of imposing a lockdown in Western Australia to boost his chances of re-election. Pictured: Long lines for testing in Perth on Sunday
Perth was left deserted on Sunday after Mark McGowan locked the city down for five days
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)