Western Australia has now gone eight consecutive days without any new locally-acquired cases of COVID-19 as the state government begins to toughen its rules for quarantine hotel security staff.

Premier Mark McGowan provided an update on the contract variation letters banning guards from four companies working at WA’s nine quarantine hotels from taking on secondary employment.

“One company has returned and executed a signed contract, and we expect another will be finalised today,” the Labor leader told reporters on Monday.

“Under the contracts, all employees are required to end secondary employment over the coming days.

“We expect we’ll resolve those matters fully over coming days.”

Health Minister Roger Cook indicated the ban on second jobs could potentially be expanded later to include other staff such as cleaners.

It comes after the Perth, Peel and South West regions were plunged into a five-day lockdown last week, prompted by a security guard testing positive for the highly contagious UK strain.

The guard, who also worked as a ride-share driver, remains in quarantine but is doing well.

None of his 527 contacts have been diagnosed with the virus following multiple tests for some of them.

Perth and the Peel region are now in a transition phase, with some restrictions still in place, including the use of masks. The South West has returned to pre-lockdown life.

A decision on Western Australia’s border rules with Victoria and NSW is expected later this week.

Mr McGowan also flagged his support for the possible introduction of day 16 testing for quarantine guests.

Education Minister Sue Ellery said 475,000 students across Western Australia were back at school on Monday.

Ms Ellery said 410,000 students were subject to the lockdown, with 324,000 in public schools.

“I want to thank everybody in education across all three sectors who worked so hard over the last week to make sure that our schools could open, that masks were in place and all of the arrangements that needed to be taken were taken,” she said.

“It’s worth noting there were 18 schools across three zones affected by fires.”

Those schools, plus another 20 that were affected by evacuations across the broader fire area, needed to be inspected and cleaned before they could open, Ms Ellery said.

Mr McGowan said there had been “unprecedented events” in Western Australia over the past week.

“Obviously, with the fires, both in Wooroloo and Yallingup, with the floods in the north and the extraordinary weather in the south, and also dealing with the COVID-19 emergency over the course of the last week, has been something I don’t think any of us have ever experienced before,” he said.

“Can I thank all of the emergency services personnel, all the people working in hotel quarantine, all the people at our testing clinics, all the people out there doing dangerous jobs in difficult circumstances.

“Can I thank every single one of them. They’ve done a great job and have done our state proud.”

Mr McGowan said significant road closures remained in parts of Carnarvon and the upper Gascoygne following the floods.

“The water levels are receding and teams are on the ground assessing the damage,” he said.

“The state and federal government will work together on potential disaster funding arrangements.”

Treasurer Ben Wyatt said he had asked Treasury to estimate the cost of the lockdown, as well as the bushfires and floods, on the West Australian economy.

Treasury has revised the state budget surplus for this financial year to $3.1bn – up from $2.2bn in the mid-year review.

Source