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WA to stay shut until 2022: McGowan

WA Premier Mark McGowan is certain his anti-COVID measures saved lives.<i>Photo: AAP</i>

WA Premier Mark McGowan is certain his anti-COVID measures saved lives.Photo: AAP

Western Australia does not plan to reopen its borders to coronavirus virus-hit eastern states until 2022.

Premier Mark McGowan wants to see vaccination rates of between 80 and 90 per cent before setting a date to allow NSW, Victoria and the ACT back in.

“We have opened at various points of time along this road and I expect we will open again once we get to very high levels of vaccination. I expect that will be some time next year,” he told the Nine Network on Monday.

“Imagine if it was the other way around and Western Australia was the infected case with thousands of cases and NSW had none, or Victoria has none – would they really want to open to us?

“I think the answer would be no.”

WA and Queensland have both spoken out strongly about the prospect of starting to ease restrictions once key national vaccination thresholds of 70 and 80 per cent are met.

Both states lag behind other jurisdictions on vaccinations.

In WA, 34.2 per cent of people aged 16 and older are double dosed.

The rate in Queensland is 34.5 per cent, while the leading jurisdiction is the ACT on 45.9 per cent.

Mr McGowan maintained he was doing what he could to keep his residents safe.

“In the meantime, we’ve got to get into some of those communities that have low levels of vaccination, Aboriginal communities, multicultural communities, poorer parts of the state and make sure we vaccinate as many of those as well,” he said.

NSW, Victoria and the ACT remain in lockdown as the Delta variant continues to spread across eastern states.

-AAP

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