McGowan ridicules Tassie’s border plan, Covid cases hit two-week high

The WA premier has taken a swipe at Tasmania’s border reopening plan, hailing his decision to keep the border shut as the right thing to do. WHAT HE SAID >>

Western Australian premier Mark McGowan has taken a swipe at the border reopening plan of Tasmania and other state’s, hailing his decision to keep the border shut as the right thing to do.

“Other states, South Australia, Tasmania dropped the border without controls and then they had massive spread of the virus, lockdowns, loss of jobs, lots of people sadly died,” Mr McGowan said.

“We’ve followed a different model.”

WA Premier Mark McGowan speaks to media. (Photo by Matt Jelonek/Getty Images)

He said keeping borders shut was to the benefit of those living in WA.

“I think the reality is we’ve saved potentially hundreds of jobs and thousands of lives from what we’ve done and that’s the right thing to do,” Mr McGowan said.

“I know it gets lots of criticism, I know a lot of people get upset by that but saving lives and saving jobs is a good thing to do and I’ll continue to say that.”

Tasmania Covid cases hit two-week high

THE number of Covid cases in Tasmania has risen for the fourth day in a row, Premier Peter Gutwein revealed on Wednesday.

There were 625 new cases of the coronavirus recorded overnight — the highest figure in a fortnight. There were 354 cases on Sunday, 408 on Monday and 514 on Tuesday.

The premier said 550 people had been released from isolation after recovering.

The state has a total of 3116 active cases with 33,296 people who have now recovered. There are 13 people in hospital — including two people in intensive care.

The state has reached a milestone of 99.8 per cent for first-dose vaccinations of those aged over 16, Mr Gutwein told reporters during a visit to the state’s east coast.

“That means that there are only around 850 Tasmanians in the state that haven’t received some level of vaccination,” he said.

Premier Peter Gutwein. Minister Sarah Courtney resigns from government effective immediately. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

And the first Australian Defence Force personnel will arrive to assist with outbreak in aged care by the end of the week, but that support would be limited.

“The ADF personnel being engaged provide assistance to aged care facilities in Tasmania, we expect that they may arrive on Friday,” Mr Gutwein said.

“There won’t be support for three facilities, one as we definitely moved out of its outbreak phase and there is the possibility that a second will move out of its outbreak phase as well and so the ADF support that will be provided will be minimal, probably around five people supporting one facility.”

Greens health spokeswoman Rosalie Woodruff MP on Wednesday called for more information on Covid infection rates in the state’s schools.

“We’ve heard in the week since school returned of seven outbreaks in schools, but the Government has not revealed how many schools have Covid cases, and how many cases are in each school,” she said.

Greens MP Rosalie Woodruff.

“Parents have a right to the full picture, as do teachers.

“Yesterday, case numbers jumped up dramatically from Tasmania’s previous seven day average.

“We understand around half the reported 625 Covid cases were in school-aged children.

Mr Gutwein said there were 12 schools that have had had an outbreak — five govenrment, four Catholic and three independent schools.

“When the commentary is that we have an outbreak in the school, that couldn’t be further from the truth,” he said.

“We have a number of cases that meet the definition that Public Health have set. But those cases have been tested and those children are at home, they’re not at school.”

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Originally published as McGowan ridicules Tassie’s border plan, Covid cases hit two-week high