WA extends coronavirus hard border with Victoria until Wednesday

Western Australia’s hard border with Victoria will be extended until at least Wednesday to mirror the length of the lockdown in that state.

A temporary 72-hour hard border was announced by the State Government last week in response to a cluster of coronavirus cases linked to a hotel quarantine worker in Melbourne.

WA Premier Mark McGowan this morning met with the Chief Health Officer, Police Commissioner and Health Minister, and said that timeframe would now be extended.

“The reason for that is because Victoria is in lockdown until at least that point in time,” he said.

“And so the Chief Health Officer’s advice is that the correct approach, at least at this point in time, is to mirror that lockdown.

“We’ll make a further decision on Wednesday as to whether to extend it.”

Mr McGowan said WA would move to ease its border restrictions with New South Wales after new new cases were detected in that state.

“The Chief Health Officer’s advices is that as of midnight tonight we can go to the controlled border,” he said.

“It’s still the strongest arrangements in place of any state.”

Anyone arriving from NSW will still need to complete a G2G application, but will no longer be required to quarantine upon arrival.