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Masks for Christmas in WA as COVID-19 case emerges

Premier Mark McGowan says WA’s high vaccination level means Perth and Peel won’t go into lockdown.

Premier Mark McGowan says WA’s high vaccination level means Perth and Peel won’t go into lockdown. Photo: AAP

Millions of West Australians will be required to wear face masks at indoor venues during the Christmas period after an unvaccinated French backpacker attended more than a dozen venues while unwittingly infected with COVID-19.

The mask requirement will apply to all public indoor venues in Perth and the Peel region, including shopping centres and public transport, from 6pm on Thursday until at least 6am on December 28.

It will not apply to home settings including family Christmas Day gatherings or during vigorous outdoor exercise.

High-risk large public events including music festivals will be cancelled and all nightclubs closed, with dancing banned except for during weddings.

But Premier Mark McGowan says the state’s high level of vaccination means Perth and Peel will not go into lockdown as occurred during previous outbreaks.

The 25-year-old man visited nightclubs, shopping centres, restaurants and a cinema across multiple Perth suburbs after arriving in WA from Queensland late on December 12.

His vaccinated girlfriend has tested negative, as have four household close contacts who are also vaccinated.

They have all been moved into hotel quarantine.

The backpacker felt unwell on Sunday but didn’t get tested until Wednesday, with the positive result returned on Thursday morning.

Mr McGowan says the man’s infection is likely to be the Delta variant rather than the Omicron strain. It’s unclear when he arrived in Australia.

“In terms of casual contacts, we think that will be in the hundreds,” the premier told reporters.

“He’s been to events where there’s been lots of dancing and lots of fun, lots of interactions.”

Close contacts are required to quarantine for two weeks, while casual contacts must isolate until they return a negative test result.

“If they have to isolate over Christmas Day, that’s an unfortunate reality, a sad reality, but that’s the reality of COVID,” Mr McGowan said.

With the state’s first-dose vaccination rate over 90 per cent, the premier said there was a level of protection that hadn’t been present during previous outbreaks.

“That’s why I have been banging on about it every day for months on end: please go and get vaccinated because you never know what’s around the corner,” he said.

“And here we are – it’s arrived. We hope there hasn’t been community spread but there may well have been. We’ll hopefully find out that answer in coming days.”

WA plans to reopen its borders from February 5, but the premier warned that date would become “redundant” if there was significant community spread of the virus.

A requirement for travellers from Queensland to undergo 14 days quarantine came into effect as little as an hour after the backpacker arrived in WA.

Because he arrived ahead of that deadline, he was not required to be vaccinated or to get tested upon arrival.

“At the time he left Queensland, there’d only been a handful of cases in the whole state reported,” Mr McGowan said.

“I don’t think he would have been thinking he could have been COVID positive but it turns out he was.”

The mask edict also applies to anyone in other parts of the state who has been in Perth or Peel since December 16, when the man is believed to have first been infectious.

Mr McGowan couldn’t rule out regional travel bans but said he hoped they would not be needed.

-AAP

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