Western Australian Health Minister Roger Cook flags return of restrictions when border reopens

Western Australia has hinted at the return of coronavirus restrictions when it finally reopens its border to the rest of the country.

The West Australian government has hinted at the return of coronavirus restrictions in what has been described as “the starkest warning yet” for the state.

Health Minister Roger Cook fronted cameras on Monday and flagged the reintroduction of potential new rules for residents when the state’s hard border reopens.

Masks and capacity limits at hospitality venues will be among the changes described by Mr Cook as the government says it will only reopen the border once vaccination targets for eligible residents reach 80 and 90 per cent.

“In the future, we will have a situation whereby we have our borders play less of a role in our public social health measures,” Mr Cook said.

“We need to have a public conversation about what it looks like when those borders come down completely.

“It means in Western Australia that we’ll be looking again towards masks playing a role in our lives.

“We will need to look again to potentially limiting the number of people at particular venues, at pubs, restaurants, large venues and so on.”

Minister for Health, Roger Cook. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Tony McDonough

Mr Cook was vague on vaccination deadlines and when the border may reopen, but said the state was on the “right trajectory” to hit the 80 per cent target “toward the end of the year”, possibly in late November.

“It will be a challenging time, but the only time we can confront that is when we have high vaccination rates,” he said of reopening.

So far, 49.8 per cent of people in WA have been fully vaccinated, while 66.6 per cent have received their first dose. Mr Cook said at least 10,000 residents were getting vaccinated every day.

Politics. Premier Mark McGowan holds a Covid related press conference at Dumas House in West Perth. Picture Jackson Flindell The West Australian

Mr Cook said due to the limited number of Covid-19 cases in the community, people had been hesitant to receive the jab.

“There will be consequences as a result of people not getting themselves vaccinated,” he warned.

“Push will come to shove at some point in the future”.

Originally published as Western Australian Health Minister Roger Cook flags return of restrictions when border reopens