Perth Airport arrivals will be given two free rapid antigen tests in a bid to lower the risk of travellers spreading Covid-19 in Western Australia, as the state recorded a spike in new infections.
WA only recorded 14 new local cases overnight, but there were an additional 80 travel-related infections.
All of them are now in quarantine.
Of the new local cases, 11 are linked to close contacts, while three remain a mystery.
Some of the new local cases were infectious in the community and contact tracers are working to determine potential public exposure sites.
“We are seeing more and more Covid cases from domestic travellers,” Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson told reporters on Wednesday.
“Yesterday, there were 52 cases from travel. Today, 80 of the 94 new cases are from domestic and international travel.
“Had we not made the decision to update our safe transition plan, these people would be in our community and our locally acquired cases numbers would likely be growing rapidly.”
WA’s total number of active cases now stands at 332, including one person who remains in hospital but they are not in intensive care.
Ms Sanderson announced on Wednesday that effective immediately Covid marshals would distribute RATs to all domestic and international travellers upon arrival at Perth Airport.
They must take the test at home on day one and seven of their quarantine period, as required under WA’s hard border restrictions.
Ms Sanderson said the rollout complemented the distribution of RATs to all public Covid testing clinics for WA Health to use and provide when demand for PCR tests peaks.
Travellers can still get a PCR test on day one at testing clinics if it is available.xjmtzyw
Positive RAT results must be registered online with the Health Department or by calling 13 COVID (13 26843).
People face up to one year imprisonment or a fine of up to $50,000 for failing to register a positive RAT result.
Ms Sanderson expressed concern that some people in the community, especially young people, were not getting tested.
She was also grilled about the health advice received from chief health officer Andy Robertson after a reporter suggested a figure central to the advice was wrong.
Further asked about the state government’s modelling, Ms Sanderson said it was not helpful to release preliminary modelling.
“At the moment, it isn’t robust because we’ve only got a few weeks of information and data, and modelling takes months,” she said.
