WA Records Two New Cases As State Prepares To Open Borders
State to lift ban on RAT kits
Western Australia have recorded two new cases of Covid over the past 24 hours as the state prepares to open their borders.
One of the cases is currently quarantining, is not believed to have been out in the community while infectious and is linked to two other cases linked to the backpacker cluster.
The second case is an interstate traveller who is currently in isolation.
This brings the total number of active cases to 84.
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The new numbers come as the state prepares to open their borders to the rest of the country from next month.
Borders are currently scheduled to open from February 5th with no official changes being made despite the rising case numbers throughout the rest of the country.
Victoria recorded 44,155 new cases, Queensland recorded 18,000 cases and NSW recorded 30,062 new cases with 16 deaths, the highest number of deaths in one single day since the beginning of the pandemic.
As case numbers in most states continue to grow, Tasmania has shown a significant decrease in cases recording 1,406 in comparison to yesterday’s 2223.
WA is also scheduled to lift their ban on rapid antigen tests from tomorrow with branch President Mark Duncan-Smith from the Australian Medical Association saying they are in no hurry to restock supply.
"In the current environment, where we have little or no community spread, they really are not very helpful at all," he says.
"If you get symptoms, what you should do is go to a testing centre and go and get a PCR test. The danger with a RAT in our environment right now is it's a high risk of false negative."
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