Western Australia has broken its Covid-19 infection record, while the number of people in hospital has also climbed.
WA Health is reporting a total of 1105 new cases overnight, including 1098 local infections and seven that are travel-related.
It brings the state’s total number of active cases to 3900.
Among the new cases were 422 self-reported positive rapid antigen tests.
Authorities also revealed there were now 15 people in hospital — up from 12 the previous day — but none were in intensive care.
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice has confirmed two prisoners and five staff at the privately-opxjmtzywerated Acacia Prison have tested positive.
They are the first confirmed positive prisoner cases in WA since the start of the pandemic.
All other prisoners in the unit have so far returned negative RAT results, but remain in quarantine awaiting the outcome of PCR tests.
Last Tuesday, Serco reported a custodial officer had returned a positive PCR test and was isolating at home.
Two more custodial officers and two non-custodial staff members have since also tested positive.
It comes as Premier Mark McGowan announced on Friday that police and healthcare workers could keep working if they were deemed a close contact and were asymptomatic, provided they returned a daily negative RAT result.
At work, they must wear a surgical mask and, if possible, travel alone.
When outside of work, they must isolate.
If they return a positive RAT result, they must do one week of quarantine.
Level one public health and social measures were also applied to the Kimberley region on Saturday morning and will be expanded to all remaining regions from 6am on Monday.
The measures were first introduced for the Perth, Peel, South West, Wheatbelt, Great Southern and Pilbara regions on February 21.
It includes home gatherings limited to 30 people and private outdoor events capped at 200 people.
There is also the 2 sqm rule for hospitality, fitness venues, entertainment venues, cultural venues, places of worship, hairdressers and beauty services.
Australian Medical Association WA president Mark Duncan-Smith welcomed the introduction of level one restrictions statewide.
“The AMA WA, in its modelling, did predict that we would hit 9020 cases in April,” he said.
“When I spoke about 50,000 to 60,000 cases a day, that was unrestricted, ‘let it rip’ cases that we would have hit, and that just indicates how important these restrictions are — and it is appropriate to have those at the moment.
“The border closure really is, at this stage, redundant and we look forward to March 3 with the opening up of the state.”
