A woman in her 40s with underlying health conditions has died with COVID-19 in Western Australia as the state records 2365 new cases.

Three people have now died during WA’s Omicron outbreak.

There are 13,486 active cases and 36 people are in hospital, although none are in intensive care.

WA Health on Sunday introduced new rules for close contacts of COVID-19 cases linked to schools.

Parents and carers are no longer automatically required to quarantine with children identified as close contacts.

They are still encouraged to take extra precautions, monitor for symptoms and limit their contact with the child where possible.

Chief Health Officer Andy Robertson said while one parent may need to stay home to care for the child, the rest of the household can attend work or school.

“These rules have been introduced to minimise the impact on families when children are identified as close contacts, including enabling siblings who have not been identified as close contacts to continue to attend school,” he said.

Families in that situation should minimise interacting with loved ones who are elderly or immunocompromised, Dr Robertson added.

The government has also eased hospital visiting rules, having faced backlash over the tough “red alert” restrictions.

Patients are now allowed to have one non-essential visitor at a time during designated visiting periods.

Hospitals had previously only allowed essential visitors including birth partners, parents, guardians, carers and support people for patients who were critically ill or at their end of life.

WA’s outbreak is expected to peak at about 10,000 daily cases in coming weeks.

Health department modelling also forecasts a peak of 430 hospital ward admissions and 53 ICU admissions.

– AAP