WA’s hard border softens.

Mark McGowan today announced changes to travel restrictions for some States easing WA’s hard border.

After Melbourne’s COVID-19 outbreak, Premier Mark McGowan amped up the restrictions against Victoria, NSW and the ACT.

It meant a very high threshold to get an exemption to get into the State, and a mandatory hotel quarantine.

But today, with Victoria and NSW COVID-19 case numbers remaining low, Mr McGowan announced changes to those restrictions.

“From Monday, October 5, people coming to Western Australia from Victoria will be required to undertake 14 days of self-quarantine,” he said.

“This is a significant but reasonable change and it will help ease the demand on our hotel quarantine arrangements as our number of international arrivals of Australians returning home is expected to gradually increase over coming weeks.

“The Chief Health Officer has also recommended some changes to people entering Western Australia from New South Wales based on that state continuing to report low numbers of cases. So from Monday October 5, New South Wales will be brought in to line with all other jurisdictions.”

Victorians will remain subject to “unique” requirements to undergo testing on day 11 of their quarantine.

Mr McGowan said today’s changes would “allow for more exempt travel to occur from New South Wales, similar to our original hard border arrangement in place from April 5”.

“This is a positive step forward for our nation,” he said.

“We can make these adjustments to our border controls because of the positive results we have recently seen over east. We have a responsibility to ensure our border controls are appropriate and reasonable as we continue to do what is in our state’s best interests.” 

Further Perth and Australian COVID-19 news on SoPerth.com.au.

Feature image: AAP Photos / Richard Wainwright