‘Further waves’: WA Premier Mark McGowan reveals grim sign for opening date

WA Premier Mark McGowan has dropped a concerning clue when it comes to a potential border reopening date for the state.

WA Premier Mark McGowan has sparked fresh concerns about his state’s reopening plans after warning of “further waves” ahead.

Western Australia was due to scrap its hard border on February 5, when 90 per cent of the eligible population was predicted to have received two Covid vaccinations.

However, that hotly-anticipated date was pushed back indefinitely last month due to concerns over the highly-transmissible Omicron variant, which is wreaking havoc across the nation, especially in the eastern states.

WA’s border controls will be reviewed at some point in February, but so far, an exact opening date has not been revealed.

During a Q and A with ABC Radio Perth on Thursday, Mr McGowan was asked by intensive care specialist Dr Luke Torre whether there was a specific number of daily Covid deaths he would be willing to tolerate in order to “open up” and allow citizens to return to their “normal” lives.

Mr McGowan did not give a number, but said his government wanted to “try to minimise the amount of deaths as much as possible”, citing the relatively high number of daily fatalities in NSW and Victoria as examples of what he hoped to avoid.

When asked by host Nadia Mitsopoulos whether he was satisfied with Mr McGowan’s answer, Dr Torre said he was concerned that the Premier might be forgetting the social impacts of Covid restrictions and closed borders, and asked whether he supported the Opposition’s push to set a new reopening date of March 4, when three-quarters of the state is tipped to have received boosters.

WA Premier Mark McGowan refused to commit to a reopening date. Picture: ABC

But Mr McGowan stopped short of confirming a date – and instead warned of more Covid pain ahead.

“We’ll set a date when it’s appropriate to do so,” Mr McGowan said.

“I want people to understand it’s not as though there’s one wave – there will be further waves and we need to take that into account.”

Mr McGowan added that fellow state and territory leaders were expecting “another wave” in the months ahead.

“People need to understand that chances are, we will get a wave when we open, but it may not be the last wave,” he said.

“We don’t just go through one and go back to normal.”

Mr McGowan’s alarming Covid comments are likely to cause concern for those keen to see the border reopen after months of uncertainty.

During the Q and A, Mr McGowan also defended his government’s tough Covid measures over the course of the pandemic, insisting they had helped to preserve lives and jobs.

WA was supposed to lift its hard border on February 5, when 90 per cent of the eligible population was predicted to be double-vaxxed. Picture: Matt Jelonek/Getty Images

“For the last two years we’ve had virtually zero infection rates,” he said.

While WA’s hard border won’t end on February 5 as planned, new border measures will kick in which are designed to assist those wanting to enter the state on compassionate grounds.

People in those circumstances will be able to apply for a G2G pass.

“As a result of our updated safe transition plan, given the impacts of Omicron, from this Saturday our border controls will change and applications can be made on the G2G Pass system from today,” Mr McGowan said this week.

“The new border settings will allow for more approved travellers to enter WA with testing and quarantine requirements under the new expanded exemption criteria.”