Coronavirus: WA border opens ‘but it’s risky to leave’

Quarantine requirements for people entering WA from NSW and Victoria were to be lifted at midnight, ending eight months of unprecedented restrictions.

WA Premier Mark McGowan. Picture: Tony McDonough

Western Australia has finally ­reopened its borders to people from Australia’s two most populous states, but Premier Mark McGowan has warned his citizens to think twice before heading east.

Quarantine requirements for people entering WA from NSW and Victoria were lifted at midnight on Monday, ending eight months of unprecedented restrictions divided families and impacted businesses across the country.

There had been concerns that WA could delay its removal of mandatory quarantine restrictions for arrivals from NSW and Victoria after a NSW hotel quarantine worker contracted coronavirus and two German visitors avoided quarantine and flew from Sydney to Melbourne.

Mr McGowan said the swift response by NSW authorities to the quarantine worker infection — including the identification and quarantining of the worker’s close contacts — gave WA and its chief health officer, Andy Robertson, the confidence that the risk of importing the virus remained very low.

The formal lifting will allow families to reunite in time for the Christmas break, and will leave only South Australia as the last state subject to domestic travel ­restrictions. Both WA and Queensland still require arrivals from SA to go into quarantine for two weeks. WA lifted its travel ­restrictions for arrivals from Queensland, Tasmania, SA, Northern Territory and the ACT on November 14, but reintroduced restrictions for SA less than two days later after the state suffered an outbreak.

Mr McGowan — whose parents live in NSW — said that while he was happy for the families that would now be able to see each other, he would not hesitate to close the border again if any states suffered an outbreak.

“We can put the hard border back up immediately if the health advice indicates that’s the appropriate course,” he said.

“Obviously that will make a few people nervous that that could happen again at any point in time, but then again COVID is unpredictable. You don’t know when there might be a mistake in a hotel in Sydney or Brisbane or the like that requires us to do that, so we will continue to take a cautious approach.”

WA’s tough border restrictions have led to a windfall for many of the state’s tourism operators, as West Australians who typically holiday overseas or ­interstate have flocked to WA’s own holiday hot spots in record numbers.

Mr McGowan said he encouraged West Australians to continue holidaying in their own backyard. “If people choose to go to NSW and Victoria to visit family or have a holiday or whatever it might be, that is their choice,” he said. “I just warn everyone that when you travel interstate there is a risk that at some point in time if there is an outbreak, we have to put up a hard border.”

More than 30,000 people have arrived in WA from interstate since the first border restrictions were eased on November 14.