WA’s Covid-19 home quarantine system ‘watertight’ and ready: police

Western Australia’s hi-tech quarantine system is watertight against Covid-19 outbreaks and will be ready to take in international travellers, one of the state’s top cops says.

Passengers arrive at Perth Airport in November 2020. Picture: Getty Images

Western Australia’s hi-tech quarantine system is watertight against Covid-19 outbreaks and will be ready to take in international travellers, one of the state’s top cops says.

As WA Premier Mark McGowan flags vaccine passports in coming months, WA Police Deputy Commissioner Gary Dreibergs has declared the home quarantine system for interstate arrivals “hugely successful” and ready to soon shift to a one-size-fits-all vaccine certificate model.

More than 97,000 people have been through the home quarantine system in WA and used the G2G app, which uses facial recognition and geolocation to track quarantiners without requiring significant police resources to monitor them.

Deputy Commissioner Dreibergs said on Monday the G2G pass – created by WA Police and tech start-up Genvis – will be fit for purpose once the nation begins using home quarantine for global travellers, and could be used as a vaccine passport within the state.

“We have not had one outbreak connected to home quarantine. It’s been hugely successful and it’s highly adaptable,” he told The Australian. “When governments make the decision that they are comfortable with international travellers being in the community, this system will be ready to use and fit for purpose.

“And it’s totally adaptable. The G2G pass is used for quarantining close contacts and with border entry … we are also incorporating proof of vaccination into it so it can work as a vaccine passport.”

G2G app users must take a photo of themselves in their home and check off a Covid-19 symptoms checklist multiple times a day to show they are obeying quarantine.

The technology is being used in the Northern Territory and Victorian authorities have been in talks with WA Police over how it could be used in Melbourne.

The national cabinet’s official international home quarantine trial in South Australia is using a similar app – developed by the SA government – which the NSW government is investigating.

The national plan states that home quarantine for vaccinated arrivals will increasingly become the norm once 80 per cent of Australian adults are fully vaccinated.

The Morrison government also announced this week that a new digital border pass will replace the physical incoming passenger card and the Covid-19 Australian Travel Declaration web form when Australia’s international border reopens.

Fewer than 40 per cent of West Australians over the age of 16 have received two vaccination doses to date, meaning WA is still months away from reaching the more than 80 per cent vaccination level at which it will consider opening its borders to Covid-infected states.

Mr McGowan on Wednesday said while he broadly supported the idea of vaccine passports, a firm decision on whether to implement such a system was still some way off. “That’ll be something that we roll out in future months, but we’re not there yet.”

The comments came as WA announced that the Pfizer vaccine would be available from next week in WA’s state-run vaccine clinics to those over the age of 60.

Over-60s have previously only had AstraZeneca available to them.

WA Health Minister Roger Cook said he hoped the broadened availability of Pfizer would help address vaccine hesitancy among the 15 per cent of Western Australians over the age of 60 who are yet to receive a single injection.