Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan is facing renewed pressure to end his state’s indefinite isolation to the rest of the country after it hit a new daily Covid case record.
The state on Monday reported 75 new coronavirus cases with 62 of these being locally acquired, beating Friday’s record of 51 locally acquired cases.
This included a new case in the South West region, someone who had been infectious in the community, while there are now three WA aged care facilities with identified Covid cases, including The Cove in Mandurah.
There are 509 active cases in Western Australia but none are in hospital.
Just 4351 people fronted up for PCR tests on Sunday – well below the 35,000 daily capacity – something that Mr McGowan said could be the result of RAT tests now being more readily available.
Opposition leader David Honey told the ABC the low testing rates were the government’s fault.
“It is fair to say, the Premier has lost the trust of the people of Western Australia when he broke his contract with them on the 5th of February in terms of opening up the state,” Mr Honey said.
“Western Australians went out they go their first jab, they got their second jab, they‘re overwhelmingly getting their booster jab, they’ve isolated, they’ve done all the things the Premier has required.
“And he’s bailed, and I think people are just fed up with the Premier making promises and not sticking with them.”
Sunday’s update came as the number of triple-boosted residents in the state passed the 50 per cent mark.
Western Australia is tipped to this the 80 per cent triple vaccination rate on March 5, with Mr Honey telling the Premier to commit to opening the borders on that date.
Western Australia was due to reopen to the rest of the country on February 5 but pushed this back indefinitely amid surging Omicron numbers on the east coast.
