Guard triggers lockdown for millions amid fears of UK variant outbreak

Mark McGowan says Western Australia is taking ‘dramatic action’ but the snap five-day lockdown has sparked an angry backlash.

Premier Mark McGowan suspended campaigning for the West Australian election in light of the lockdown. Picture: Getty Images

Two million West Australians have been plunged into five days of hard lockdown after a security guard at a Perth quarantine hotel spent days in the community after likely being infected with the highly contagious UK variant of the coronavirus.

Premier Mark McGowan said the state was taking “dramatic action immediately’’ to crush the virus, but the snap lockdown sparked an angry backlash from a major business group and threatened to disrupt fly-in fly-out rosters for the state’s mining industry.

WA federal politicians, who were in the air on the way to Canberra when the lockdown was announced were forced into quarantine ahead of the resumption of federal parliament on Tuesday. Mr McGowan delayed the return of school by a week and the Big Bash cricket final scheduled for Thursday will be moved to Canberra. The Perth Fringe Festival was cancelled.

Mr McGowan suspended his election campaigning in light of the lockdown. West Australians are due to vote on March 13.

The lockdown announcement sparked a wave of panic-buying at supermarkets and petrol stations as long queues of Perth residents hoarded toilet paper and household staples.

The infection, the state’s first community coronavirus case in almost 10 months highlighted holes in the state’s quarantine system after it emerged the hotel security guard was moonlighting as a rideshare driver.

West Australians buy supplies at the Kingsway Shopping Centre in Madeley, northern Perth on Sunday. Picture: Marie Nirme

In Victoria, the government vetoed second jobs for hotel quarantine staff after the escape of the virus sparked the state’s second wave that forced Melbourne’s three-month lockdown.

The man who is in his 20s, has tested positive to COVID-19 and is likely to have contracted the British variant of the virus. Three of his housemates have been taken into hotel quarantine. They have tested negative for the virus so far, but Mr McGowan said they were expected to test positive in the coming days.

The man, who visited a string of shops and venues across Perth during the days before his infection was detected, was working for a rideshare service in his spare time, although Mr McGowan said the man had not worked a shift since he contracted the virus.

The lockdown that began at 6pm Perth time on Sunday will be lifted at 6pm on Friday and applies to the Perth metropolitan area, the Peel region and the state’s southwest.

Perth residents will now be required for the first time to wear masks in public, and outside exercise will be limited to one hour a day.

Schools on Christmas Island — 2300km northwest of Perth — will also not resume this week because some students and teachers are known to have visited the WA capital in recent days.

Scott Morrison said the coming days would be “difficult for many Western Australians but we’re confident WA will be able to get on top of the current outbreak’’.

Mr McGowan said the highly transmissible nature of the UK variant meant the state needed to do everything it could to stop the spread. “This is not welcome news, this is not what I wanted to be telling people … But by acting quickly and by everyone co-operating, hopefully we can crush it in its tracks, and we can be back to normal in the coming weeks.”

The Sheraton Four Points Hotel in Wellington Street, Perth. Picture: Philip Gostelow

Australian Retailers Association chief executive Paul Zahra said the short notice demonstrated ‘‘a lack of respect’’ for the impact on businesses. “We have been living with COVID for nearly a year now with ample time to get reasonable business communication in place,’’ he said. ‘‘With a hotspot- approach showing powerful results around the country, it makes little sense to continue shutting down local economies whenever new cases emerge, let alone just one case.’’

The state’s miners face disruption to rosters after flights from Perth to the Pilbara were cancelled, but the industry is confident it can manage if the lockdown is limited to five days.

Queensland has already declared Perth a hotspot, meaning anyone arriving from WA will have to enter 14 days of hotel quarantine.

Mr McGowan said he had contacted Mr Morrison and the other premiers asking them to “put a stop to any travel into WA”.

A planeload of West Australian federal MPs, including Defence Minister Linda Reynolds and Attorney-General Christian Porter, was already in the air when the lockdown was announced. The MPs were advised on landing that they would be directed to quarantine “until further advised by the whips office”.

In Sydney, all passengers from Perth were temperature-checked before disembarkation and NSW contact tracers were asking all arrivals to fill-in a detailed form outlining specifics about their movements in Western Australian.

It also emerged that WA had yet to fully roll out daily saliva testing of its hotel quarantine workers, more than three weeks after such a measure was discussed at a meeting of the national cabinet.

Mr McGowan said the government had tried to address the issue of second jobs but it had been hard to prevent hotel quarantine staff from moonlighting.

Hotel quarantine has consistently proved to be the weak point in Australia’s COVID response, having been linked to a string of outbreaks and infections.

The president of the Australian Medical Association in WA, Andrew Miller, said it was the system, rather than the security guard, that was at fault.

“People working in quarantine facilities need to have contracts that pay them sufficiently and put in place sufficient prohibitions that prevent them from working in other places,” Dr Miller said.

“He was working in a system that I believe didn’t provide him with enough PPE to protect him from the virus, that did not provide him with adequate ventilation, and he was not getting daily testing.”

WA Police Commissioner Chris Dawson said the state would examine what it could do to prevent hotel quarantine workers taking second jobs. “We have to ensure that they have sufficient income,” he said.

Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA chief executive Chris Rodwell described the lockdown as “necessary and proportionate”.