18 August 2021

COVID-19 update 18 August 2021

WA Health is reporting one new COVID-19 case today.

The case is a man in his 20s, who has arrived from overseas and is in hotel quarantine.

The State’s total is now 1062. To date, 1050 people have recovered from the virus in WA.

WA Health is monitoring three active COVID-19 cases, all currently in hotel quarantine. The seafarer from the MV Darya Krishna has been cleared of COVID-19 and remains in a stable condition in a Perth hospital.

Testing clinics

Yesterday, 1321 people were swabbed at State-run clinics. A list of all testing clinics is available on the HealthyWA website. To date, there have been 1,596,064 COVID-19 tests performed in WA. Of those, 190,314 were from regional WA.

Vaccination

More than 75,000 Western Australians aged 16 to 29-year-olds have registered and booked a COVID vaccination appointment at State-run clinics since WA’s two-week vaccination blitz was announced on Monday. Just over 3500 are booked in to receive a vaccination this week.

It was also the first opportunity for people aged 12 years and over with underlying medical conditions; those who live in remote communities; or who are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

People in these cohorts can now start booking their vaccination appointment. Visit rollup.wa.gov.au, create a profile and then make an appointment.

To support the vaccination blitz, a new community vaccination clinic at the Perth Convention Exhibition Centre is now open from 8.30am to 6.00pm seven days a week.

Since vaccination numbers were reported yesterday, 23,694 vaccine doses were recorded in WA, of which 12,872 were second doses. The total includes 3111 were historic vaccine doses*. These figures represent vaccinations at State-run clinics and doses administered through the Commonwealth rollout**.

For the latest WA vaccination figures, visit the COVID-19 Coronavirus: Vaccination dashboard (external site).*

Border controls

New Zealand update

Based on the latest health advice, New Zealand will transition to a ‘low risk’ jurisdiction under Western Australia’s controlled border, effective from 12pm today.

Anyone entering from New Zealand from 12pm today will be subject to the following strict conditions. They must:

  • present for a COVID-19 test on arrival (within 48 hours) and on day 12.
  • self-quarantine for 14 days in a suitable premises.
  • complete a G2G Pass declaration prior to arrival, stipulating they do not have any COVID-19 symptoms and which jurisdictions they have been in during the previous 14 days.
  • land arrivals are to be met at the border checkpoint for a health screening and to have their G2G Pass declaration checked before proceeding to their self-quarantine premises.

It is important that recent travellers from New Zealand familiarise themselves with the latest exposure sites (external site), as contact tracing continues to uncover more locations of concern.

Northern Territory

All passengers arriving into Western Australia from Northern Territory are required to get tested immediately (within 48 hours) and isolate until they have received a negative result.

Any passenger who refuses to get tested will be required to self-isolate for 14 days.

Anyone who has been at the listed NT exposure venues on the dates and time specified are required to self-quarantine for 14 days and be tested immediately (within 48 hours) and again at day 11.

Anyone from the Darwin and Katherine areas who did not visit the venues and has arrived from August 12 to 16 is advised to get tested if they develop any symptoms that may be related to COVID-19.

WA has transitioned New South Wales to high risk. The Australian Capital Territory and Queensland are at medium risk (external site), while South Australia is assessed as low risk (external site). Tasmania is considered very low risk (external site).

Variants

To date, 124 cases of variant strains have been detected in Western Australia – 53 Alpha strain, 15 Beta strain, one Gamma strain and 55 Delta strain.

Visit WA Health’s HealthyWA website for the latest information on COVID-19.

Follow us on Twitter: WAHealth

Note:

*Historic vaccine doses are vaccinations that were administered up to 10 days before the current date but were recorded on the Australian Immunisation Register since the last report.

**WA vaccination data for the WA COVID-19 Vaccination Dashboard is sourced from the Australian Immunisation Register (AIR). AIR is a national register maintained by the Australian Government that records all vaccines given to all people in Australia. WA data includes all COVID-19 vaccinations in WA, whether administered by WA Health, Australian Government providers or other providers (including GPs). WA previously reported only WA Health data. Note that the dashboard does not update until after 2pm Monday to Friday. A vaccine dashboard data interpretation guide (external site) is also available to help you.