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Sunday, January 31, 2021 2:40:02 PM
Much of Western Australia goes into five-day lockdown after hotel guard tests positive to UK Covid variant
"Dozen people who stayed at Auckland quarantine hotel linked to variant spread travelled to Australia"
"Ten months of zero locally transmitted cases, then one case and lockdown. This is how the virus is contained. How lives are saved."
Restrictions imposed in Perth, Peel and South West, with schools suspended and residents only allowed to leave home for essential reasons
Western Australia premier Mark McGowan announces a five-day lockdown across Perth, Peel and South West following
the discovery of a positive Covid-19 case in a worker at a quarantine hotel.
Photograph: Matt Jelonek/Getty Images
Luke Henriques-Gomes @lukehgomes
Sun 31 Jan 2021 06.14 GMT
Last modified on Sun 31 Jan 2021 06.42 GMT
Western Australia has imposed a five-day lockdown in metropolitan Perth, the Peel region and the state’s South West amid fears a hotel quarantine worker who has tested positive to Covid-19 has contracted the highly contagious UK variant.
The state premier, Mark McGowan, said the “full lockdown” would begin at 6pm on Sunday, meaning residents could only leave their homes for essential grocery shopping, medical reasons, to care for the vulnerable or exercise within their neighbourhood.
Schools were due to return on Monday but will now remain closed; masks will become mandatory during the lockdown’; and venues including bars, pubs, clubs, gyms and places of worship will need to close. Restaurants and cafes will be limited to takeaway service. Elective surgery has also been suspended.
“This is a very serious situation, and each and every one of us has to do everything we personally can to stop the spread in the community,” McGowan said. “We have acted decisively and swiftly in these circumstances.”
“In effect, for a short period of time, we are going back to what we experienced in March and April of last year,” he added.
The hotel quarantine worker is in his 20s and contracted symptoms on 28 January. He reported his symptoms to his employer and did not work that day. Authorities believe he was infectious since 26 January.
The man is also believed to have worked as a rideshare driver.
The man’s three housemates have been taken to managed quarantine and could be expected to test positive in coming days, McGowan said.
“We don’t know how this security guard acquired the virus in the hotel,” he said.
But the premier said that based on current information “it appears possible that this new positive case has the highly transmissible new UK variant”.
Asked if restrictions would be lifted altogether or gradually after the five-day period, McGowan said it would likely be the latter and the disruption would go beyond the initial lockdown. Campaigning for the WA election would also be postponed, he added.
The lockdown will affect about 80% of the state’s population.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jan/31/much-of-western-australia-goes-into-five-day-lockdown-after-hotel-guard-tests-positive-to-uk-covid-variant
"Dozen people who stayed at Auckland quarantine hotel linked to variant spread travelled to Australia"
"Ten months of zero locally transmitted cases, then one case and lockdown. This is how the virus is contained. How lives are saved."
Restrictions imposed in Perth, Peel and South West, with schools suspended and residents only allowed to leave home for essential reasons
Western Australia premier Mark McGowan announces a five-day lockdown across Perth, Peel and South West following
the discovery of a positive Covid-19 case in a worker at a quarantine hotel.
Photograph: Matt Jelonek/Getty Images
Luke Henriques-Gomes @lukehgomes
Sun 31 Jan 2021 06.14 GMT
Last modified on Sun 31 Jan 2021 06.42 GMT
Western Australia has imposed a five-day lockdown in metropolitan Perth, the Peel region and the state’s South West amid fears a hotel quarantine worker who has tested positive to Covid-19 has contracted the highly contagious UK variant.
The state premier, Mark McGowan, said the “full lockdown” would begin at 6pm on Sunday, meaning residents could only leave their homes for essential grocery shopping, medical reasons, to care for the vulnerable or exercise within their neighbourhood.
Schools were due to return on Monday but will now remain closed; masks will become mandatory during the lockdown’; and venues including bars, pubs, clubs, gyms and places of worship will need to close. Restaurants and cafes will be limited to takeaway service. Elective surgery has also been suspended.
“This is a very serious situation, and each and every one of us has to do everything we personally can to stop the spread in the community,” McGowan said. “We have acted decisively and swiftly in these circumstances.”
“In effect, for a short period of time, we are going back to what we experienced in March and April of last year,” he added.
The hotel quarantine worker is in his 20s and contracted symptoms on 28 January. He reported his symptoms to his employer and did not work that day. Authorities believe he was infectious since 26 January.
The man is also believed to have worked as a rideshare driver.
The man’s three housemates have been taken to managed quarantine and could be expected to test positive in coming days, McGowan said.
“We don’t know how this security guard acquired the virus in the hotel,” he said.
But the premier said that based on current information “it appears possible that this new positive case has the highly transmissible new UK variant”.
Asked if restrictions would be lifted altogether or gradually after the five-day period, McGowan said it would likely be the latter and the disruption would go beyond the initial lockdown. Campaigning for the WA election would also be postponed, he added.
The lockdown will affect about 80% of the state’s population.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jan/31/much-of-western-australia-goes-into-five-day-lockdown-after-hotel-guard-tests-positive-to-uk-covid-variant
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