Covid Australia live updates: WA premier Mark McGowan announces three-day lockdown for Perth and Peel after coronavirus case leaves hotel quarantine

3.06am EDT 03:06

Q. Why can people go to the rugby and basketball games tonight but not Anzac Day services?

Mark McGowan:

“There is no perfect answer here. We discussed this during the course of the day. It is now past 3pm. We only have this second case in the course of the last hour or so and we have had to make a judgment call on what is possible to be implemented.

“So we took the advice of the health officials and also the police commissioner. Logistically, it was very difficult to put in place the rules at 6pm so we moved it to 12pm just to allow for the drafting of the rules and secondly the implementation of the rules.”

Updated at 3.10am EDT

3.04am EDT 03:04

Chris Dawson says around 20 people who were on the same flight from Perth to Melbourne as the man who travelled to Melbourne are either on their way back or already back in WA. Police and the health department will determine whether they’re close contacts.

He notes there are no interstate travel restrictions in place at this time (I am guessing that might change to line up with the lockdown as we have seen previously).

3.01am EDT 03:01

Contact tracing is under way, but Chris Dawson says the man from Melbourne who tested positive did not use the Safe WA QR code check-in app for the places he visited. Dawson said his friend who tested positive did, however.

Dawson urges everyone to use the QR code check-in app (albeit that they won’t be able to dine in restaurants or go to pubs for anything other than takeaway this weekend).

Updated at 3.03am EDT

2.58am EDT 02:58

Police commissioner Chris Dawson says there is already advice that there is a lot of traffic on the roads, and stresses they will not be preventing people leaving the Perth or Peel region up to midnight:

“This long weekend, you should limit your movements but we accept the practicality of this is that people will be moving for the long weekend and from midnight tonight, as the lockdown commences.”

People who do leave the Perth/Peel region will be expected to wear a mask, regardless of where they are in Western Australia.

Updated at 3.01am EDT

2.54am EDT 02:54

Professional sports in Perth will go ahead but only with players and officials. The Wildcats and Western Force rugby game will go ahead with crowds tonight because it’s before midnight, but anything between Saturday and Monday night will not go ahead with crowds.

2.52am EDT 02:52

WA police commissioner Chris Dawson has urged Perth and Peel residents not to rush around tonight ahead of lockdown commencing at midnight:

“People who are leaving the Perth and Peel area, we know it as long weekend. I ask that you drive safely. You don’t rush. There is no need to rush. We want you to keep safe on the roads. We accept and know that may people have plans for the long weekend. If you are driving and have made plans, don’t leave this until the last minute. Drive safely and normally.”

2.49am EDT 02:49

WA halves hotel quarantine cap

WA premier Mark McGowan says he has asked for the number of international arrivals per week in WA be cut from 1,025 to 512 per week for the next month:

Given the situation around the world, with cases increasing and the stress on our hotel quarantine system, it is important we have a pause on the number of cases coming in to our quarantine facilities. Covid-19 is incredibly challenging as we are experiencing. It has been more than a year and WA’s experience of community transmission has occurred before, a year ago, but this has been an incredible result that we have achieved till now. We need to go back to what we know best.

Updated at 2.57am EDT

2.47am EDT 02:47

WA premier announces Perth and Peel lockdown

WA premier Mark McGowan announces a three-day lockdown from midnight tonight until midnight on Monday.

People can only leave home for work, shopping for essentials, medical needs, compassionate requirements, or exercise with a maximum of four people, limited to one hour per day.

Masks are mandatory from 6pm tonight.

Pubs, bars and clubs, except takeaway, are closed. Gyms and indoor sporting venues are closed and no committee sport is permitted.

Playgrounds, skate parks and outdoor recreational facilities; cinemas, entertainment venues and casinos; large religious gatherings and places of worship; and libraries and cultural institutions are all closed. No visitors to hospitals or residential aged care or disability facilities unless there are exceptional circumstances. Weddings and funerals will be permitted, however, with 100-patron capacity not including staff, and masks must be worn.

Anzac Day dawn services in Perth and Peel will not go ahead.

Masks are mandatory in Perth from 6pm tonight. Photograph: Stefan Gosatti/Getty Images

Updated at 3.22am EDT

2.44am EDT 02:44

WA case passed on Covid to friend

WA premier Mark McGowan says the Victorian man who tested positive was one of two in adjacent rooms to those who tested positive.

He was in Perth for five days before he left for Melbourne yesterday, and has already passed on Covid-19 to one of his close contacts in Perth.

“We now need to assume he was infectious during this five day period.”

They’re still contact tracing, but he went and had a coffee in Leeming on the 18th, a dinner in Northridge, and stayed at St Catherine’s College at UWA, went to a traditional Chinese medicine doctor, visited Kings Park on the 20th and Northbridge again, and then wen to the airport on the 21st.

He was on QF778 and Victoria is tracing those 257 passengers.

Updated at 2.47am EDT

2.37am EDT 02:37

WA Chamber of Minerals and Energy foreshadows snap lockdown

Ahead of WA premier Mark McGowan’s press conference, the WA Chamber of Minerals and Energy informed its members that a three-day lockdown was imminent in the wake of the Covid-19 transmission in hotel quarantine.

Updated at 3.35am EDT