Western Australia Announces Changes to Close Contact and Isolation Rules

Western Australia will introduce new rules in response to rising Omicron case numbers, Premier Mark McGowan announced in a press conference on Monday afternoon.

From tomorrow, 12.01am Tuesday February 8, the state will move to “high caseload settings” to “help manage community transmission”.

Under the new rules, the definition of a close contact is a household member or intimate partner of an infectious case; a close personal interaction during that person’s infectious period, including 15 minutes of face-to-face contact where masks were not worn or where they’ve spent more than two hours in a small room where masks were not worn; and/or someone who’s been notified by WA Health. There are no longer rules for casual contacts.

Isolation requirements for close contacts will be reduced from 14 to seven days. And quarantine for international and interstate arrivals will also be reduced to seven days. The international arrivals cap will be doubled from 265 to 530.

“We’re putting these protocols in place tomorrow, because we’ve seen what happened over east, when the virus overwhelmed testing systems, and forced large portions of the workforce into extended isolation,” McGowan said.

More to come.