Live Breaking News: Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly applauds WA for strict border control

Despite criticism for its strict border closures, CMO Paul Kelly has applauded one state for achieving some of the best Covid results in the world.

The chief medical officer gave one state a surprise shout-out in a press conference on Sunday, praising strong border control for an extraordinary result.

 

Speaking to reporters, Professor Paul Kelly said Western Australia has done "extremely well" in the battle against the virus, placing it as one of the "only places in the world" that has avoided disaster.

"The only places in the world that have not seen any Covid at all ... would be some of the Pacific Island countries and that's because they've essentially been cut off from the rest of the world for the last 18 months," he said.

"Western Australia have done extremely well now, relying on the very strong border controls, both external to the rest of the world and to the rest of Australia," he said, explaining that for the rest of the nation, eliminating Covid has not been a "sustainable long-term strategy".

On Friday, Premier Mark McGowan announced that New South Wales will become the first jurisdiction in Australia to be classified as "extreme risk".

Under the rules of the "extreme risk" border closures, travel exemptions into WA from that jurisdiction are restricted to "Commonwealth, State and specialist functions only".

It comes as more than 2000 people converged on the Queensland-NSW border in protest of current restrictions, berating officers and urging each other to "cross the border". 

Meanwhile NSW recorded another horror day with 830 new local Covid-19 infections; and Victoria reported 65 new cases. 

Today's live blog has now closed. You can find Saturday's blog here.