As it happened: Perth goes into five-day lockdown after man tests positive for UK variant of COVID-19; Australia resumes NZ travel bubble

UPDATED: Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan has placed the Perth, Peel and South-West regions into a five-day lockdown until Friday.

Mr McGowan has revealed a male security guard in his 20s has tested positive for COVID-19 after working at a quarantine hotel.

Mr McGowan said the man worked on the same floor as a person positive for the UK variant of COVID-19 and he reported in sick on January 28 after working 12-hour shifts the previous two days.

The man and his household members have been placed in hotel quarantine and close contacts are being contacted.

But Mr McGowan said there remained a concern that the UK variant could be in the community.

Mr McGowan said school holidays would be extended until next week to match the lockdown and he encouraged anyone visiting those areas stay where they are for the week.

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And that’s a wrap for today. You can come across and join Monday’s blog here.

It will obviously be a big week for WA residents as Perth and two surrounding regions are plunged into a five-day lockdown, and borders start to slam shut in Victoria and Queensland.

Here’s a summary of the day’s top stories:

• Perth and two other WA regions – Peel and the South West – will be plunged into lockdown from 6pm on Sunday after a hotel quarantine worker tested positive to COVID-19.
• Victoria closed its border to some sections of Perth, declaring them red zones.
• New Zealanders will be free to recommence travel to Australia without quarantining after a six-day suspension was ended by the Morrison government.
• Victoria recorded 25 days in a row with no locally acquired cases of coronavirus, but follow-up tests are being undertaken by health experts on one uncertain test result.
• NSW reported no locally acquired cases of COVID-19 for the 14th consecutive day, marking one infection cycle with zero local transmission detected.
• Queensland has declared Perth a hotspot after a COVID-19 case was detected in the Western Australian capital for the first time in months.

• The Australian Open quarantine facilities are still holding three people – one player and two others who tested positive for COVID-19 earlier in their lockdown – according to Tennis Australia.

The Victorian government has shut the border to parts of WA after the state’s Premier Mark McGowan ordered a five-day lockdown because one new case was recorded.

Anyone who has been in Perth’s metropolitan area, the Peel region and the South West region of WA will not be able to enter Victoria as of 9pm Sunday night. Those areas have been deemed red zones under Victoria’s traffic light system.

“If people have been in one of these currently listed red zones since 25 January, they will not be allowed to enter Victoria without an exception, exemption or permitted worker permit,” a statement from the Victorian Health Department said.

“The rest of Western Australia outside of the red zone areas of the Perth metropolitan area, the Peel region and the South West region will remain green zones.”

NSW Health issued its advice late Sunday requiring some travellers returning from affected areas of WA to isolate or stay at home.

“Any travellers who have been at places of concern will be required to be tested and isolate for 14 days if they attended any of the named venues,” a spokesperson said.

In addition, it said anyone who had been in any of the affected areas of WA since Monday January 25 will be required to get tested within 48 hours of arrival in NSW.

They will also have to stay at home for five days, until 9pm on Friday February 5. If they do not get tested, they are required to remain at home for a total of 14 days.

There were four flights scheduled to arrive in Melbourne from Perth on Monday, with the first arriving after 6pm.

Passengers from flights arriving today and since January 25 will be contacted by the Health Department. They will be asked to get tested and isolate.

The land border between WA and South Australia will have a police check point which is likely to check both SA and Victorian permits.

Before the cameras even stopped rolling on the government’s press conference, shoppers were swarming supermarkets and liquor stores in Perth and Mandurah.

People still enjoying lunch at the Como Hotel in south Perth might have been oblivious at first, but soon realised something was up as they began to stare at cars flooding into the car park of the new Dan Murphy’s next door.

Those headed into the bottle shop joked with each other about having their priorities straight, while inside the line to the checkouts stretched right across the store and the ‘collect a box for your booze’ area stood ransacked.

Chaos at Coles in Ellenbrook.

Nearby, lines for the Amcal Pharmacy on South Terrace and the tiny Coles supermarket on Angelo Street already stretched down the street.

A worker at Halls Head Shopping Centre called the lines there “insane” and a shopper at Inglewood Coles described “chaos”, with long lines inside and no trolleys left.

Authorities have scrambled to meet a flight from Perth to Canberra carrying federal politicians who may have to self-isolate because of a sudden lockdown in parts of Western Australia.

In a rush to deal with the situation while the plane was in flight, authorities ordered MPs and others who had come from Perth to stay away from federal Parliament until more details emerged.

Attorney-General Christian Porter was believed to be one of the federal MPs on the flight from Perth on Sunday.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

The passengers were understood to include Attorney-General Christian Porter and Defence Minister Linda Reynolds, who had boarded Qantas flight QF856 at about lunchtime in Perth, before the lockdown.

One passenger on the flight raised concerns about being near one of the COVID-19 exposure sites named on Sunday when the WA state government declared a five-day lockdown.

The speaker of the House of Representatives, Tony Smith, spoke with the president of the Senate, Scott Ryan, on Sunday night and decided none of the people on the flight should come to Parliament until further notice.

The rule could prevent MPs coming to Parliament for days, but it is subject to advice from the ACT government. Parliament meets on Tuesday for the first sitting of the year.

The top officials from each chamber of Parliament – the serjeant-at-arms from the House of Representatives and the usher of the black rod from the Senate – were sent to Canberra airport to meet the flight and convey the message.

The ACT has not ordered the passengers into 14 days of quarantine.

The parliamentary officials asked MPs and staff to go to their Canberra homes directly from the airport and wait there for further advice.

Options include requiring them to get tested and to self-isolate while waiting for results.

Read the full story here.

Paris: President Emmanuel Macron defended his decision to hold off on a third lockdown, telling the public he had faith in their ability to rein in COVID-19 with less severe curbs even as a third wave spreads and the vaccine rollout falters.

From Sunday, France will close it borders to all but essential travel to and from countries outside the European Union, while people arriving from within the bloc will have to show a negative test. Large shopping centres will be shut and police patrols increased to enforce a 6pm curfew.

French President Emmanuel MacronCredit: AP

But Macron has stopped short of ordering a new daytime lockdown, saying on Saturday (Europe time) he wants to see first if other measures will be enough to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

With 10 per cent of cases now attributable to the more contagious variant first found in Britain, senior medics have recommended a new lockdown, and one opinion poll showed more than three-quarters of French people think one is now inevitable. The poll also showed falling public confidence in the government’s handling of the crisis.

Reuters

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Victorian public health officials are in talks to determine how to act in response to the snap five-day lockdown in Perth announced this afternoon.

The Victorian Health Department confirmed the discussions involving Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton and his colleagues.

The department said it had retested a Victorian man in his 30s who had returned an indeterminate test result.

The person received a weak positive result last night which followed a negative test two days earlier.

The man is isolating along with his close contacts as a precautionary measure.

“Initial repeat follow-up tests of the case and those of close contacts are negative but further investigations are ongoing,” the department said.

Perth’s sudden five-day lockdown has brought the nation’s impressive 14-day run of no locally acquired cases to an end. Some of Australia’s politicians have taken to Twitter to share their thoughts.

Queensland has declared Perth a hotspot after a COVID-19 case was detected in the Western Australian capital for the first time in months.

Queensland’s health department issued a statement on Sunday afternoon declaring Perth and its surrounds a hotspot.

Passengers arriving at Brisbane Airport on flights from Perth will be required to quarantine from 6pm AEST. Credit: Tertius Pickard

“Anyone who has been in Metropolitan Perth, Peel or the South West regions of WA who arrives in Queensland from 6pm [AEDT] tonight will be required to go into 14 days’ mandatory hotel quarantine. This timeframe may change as we receive more information about the WA outbreak,” the statement said.

“Anyone who is already in Queensland but has been in Perth or the Peel or South West regions since January 26 should come forward and get tested and isolate until get a negative result.”

The decision comes as Queensland prepares to reopen the border to NSW, with all travel restrictions between NSW and Queensland set to cease at 1am Monday.

The Australian Medical Association’s WA branch president Andrew Miller spoke to media on Sunday afternoon, as residents of Perth and two surrounding WA regions digested the news that they were about to enter a five-day lockdown.

Carefully laid plans to allow Queenslanders into WA from tonight and Victorians from Friday have been dashed after the state recorded its first case of COVID-19 in 10 months.

While the border restrictions will still be eased, the WA government has urged interstate residents to refrain from travelling to WA if they can.

Travellers with a valid G2G pass will still be allowed into the state, but Police Commissioner Chris Dawson said anyone flying into the state would immediately find themselves in lockdown after landing at Perth Airport.

“I think the sensible thing is unless you actually have to come, don’t come. You’ll be in a lockdown,” Mr Dawson said.

WA Premier Mark McGowan said it would be up to state premiers as to whether they put up a hard border up with WA.

There are also no formal restrictions on people leaving the state, but Mr McGowan has urged all West Australians to remain where they are for the duration of the lockdown.