A coronavirus outbreak at an aged care home in Perth has swelled to 17 cases while contact tracers scramble to find the source of new mystery cases, some of whom were infectious in the community.
Of the 68 new cases confirmed on Sunday, 38 were acquired locally, with 27 linked to close contacts of confirmed cases.
Five cases are being followed up by contact tracers, Premier Mark McGowan told reporters, and some of the new local cases were infectious in the community.
The outbreak at Juniper’s Cygnet Residential Aged Care home in Bentley – the first at such a facility in Western Australia – has risen to 17.
It began with two cases confirmed on Wednesday.
Amid rumours that cases had been detected at second aged care home run by Brightwater, Mr McGowan said he had not been advised about that but “it might be in today’s numbers or coming through”.
Brightwater is being sought for comment.
The Labor leader once again urged West Australians to get tested, warning “the chances are that there are cases out there we don’t know about, probably in large numbers”.
Just 4395 people had a PCR test at private and public clinics on Saturday.
“They are doing about 15 per cent, 20 per cent of their full capacity so please go and get tested,” Mr McGowan said.
“While the PCR test number may seem relatively low, it is important to remember PCR tests are not the only diagnostic tool that can be used in Western Australia at this point in time.”
Rapid antigen tests only became legal in WA about a month ago.
“Currently the state government has 8.8 million RAT tests in stock and that number is growing each and every day,” Mr McGowan said.
“This coming week, our stocks are expected to hit 11.2 million rapid antigen tests. Based on our current orders we anticipate having more than 100 million RAT tests by the end of April.
“We are currently distributing RAT tests to all public Covid testing clinics, to manage demand and wait xjmtzywtimes and also to support the testing regime for interstate and international arrivals.”
He said PCR tests were preferred while there was still capacity at testing clinics.
While aged care homes were a commonwealth responsibility, the WA government would assist them with personal protective equipment and RATs, Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson said.
“The commonwealth has had issues getting their PPE and RATs across the border, and those aged care homes have not had access to the commonwealth supply,” she said.
“I’ve met with all of the major providers … my message to them and to the department is if you require access to the state supply, we will give you access and we will work it out with the commonwealth afterwards.
“We will not be quibbling on the ground.”
Mr McGowan is yet to advise when WA may fully open up its borders, having abandoned a planned date of February 5 as the Omicron variant was tearing through the rest of the nation.
