The coronavirus-infected patient who sparked a three-day lockdown in Perth had provided profound reasons that saw granted travel exemption to go to Covid-ravaged India and then returning to Australia.
Health Minister Greg Hunt responded to growing public outrage over the decision to allow a pair of newlyweds back into Australia from India, where the death toll is spiralling and more than 350,000 new cases were recorded on Sunday alone.
When asked what he thought of Australians being able to travel in and out of India, the minister said exemptions were for the most profound humanitarian or compassionate reasons .
Health Minister Greg Hunt (pictured) has said the groom that was granted an exemption to fly to Covid-riddled India provided profound reasons to travel
Snap three-day lockdown will be relaxed from midnight on Tuesday morning
Mask-wearing will stay mandatory in both indoor and outdoor public settings
Bars, restaurants and pubs can reopen as long as they offer seated service only
Schools will resume, but only primary school pupils won t have to wear a mask
Premier Mark McGowan said the weekend s strict lockdown had done its job
Millions in Perth are enduring a snap three day lockdown after a Covid outbreak
Covid exposure sites in Perth have increased, with seven confirmed hot spots
Premier Mark McGowan will decide on Monday whether to extend lockdown
He hinted some measures will remain if lockdown does end midnight Monday
WA recorded zero new locally-acquired cases on Sunday, one case in quarantine
The Perth Covid cluster has spread to New Zealand with two travellers from the same household forced into isolation after being declared casual contacts of an infected man.
New Zealand s Ministry of Health scrambled to contact 1,000 passengers who arrived in the country on direct flights from Perth on April 19, 21 and 23 after the city and the Peel region was plunged into a three-day lockdown from midnight Friday. Of those, two people from the same household have let health authorities know they were in the Perth domestic terminal at the time specified in the locations of interest page, the ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
As Perth and Peel residents mark Anzac Day within the confines of lockdown, Western Australia s health authorities are on high alert for further local cases of COVID-19.
A second locally-acquired case linked to the Perth Mercure Hotel outbreak was announced on Saturday afternoon - a man in his 40s who dined at the same restaurant as two confirmed cases.
The two cases were a 54-year-old Victorian man who appears to have contracted the virus from a fellow returned traveller while in hotel quarantine at the Mercure, and his female friend from Kardinya, whom he was visiting.
Mark McGowan (pictured on Friday) has lashed the Federal Government for not providing better quarantine facilities, saying CBD hotels were not suitable