Cases confined to Perth

A WA Health Department spokeswoman has stressed there are no COVID-19 cases outside of Perth.

“In order to further strengthen access to testing, a dedicated COVID clinic is being established in Bunbury at Bunbury Hospital,” the department said.

The clinic opened yesterday and runs from 10am-4pm. “Regional people outside the Bunbury region, who meet the testing criteria, are able to present to one of the around 100 facilities in order to be tested for suspected COVID-19,” the department said.

Specific instructions for Capes residents — including locations for testing to avoid travelling to Bunbury or Perth — were not supplied as the Times went to press.

“Comprehensive policies and procedures for dealing with infectious patients are in place across all WA hospitals,” the department said. “These procedures include infection-control and isolation measures.” On Wednesday, WA’s Chief Health Officer Andrew Robertson rejected closing schools.

“There is out there, I think, some claims that we could just lock everything down for a month including schools and then we’d be fine,” Dr Robertson said.

“That is not how public health and epidemiology works. We could do that and that would be very disruptive in society, (then) in a month’s time we might have delayed it a month, but we’d be in the same situation again.”

Australian Medical Association WA president Andrew Miller said lockdowns were proving effective overseas. Dr Miller said any residents identifying gaps in service could contact him via Twitter on @drajm or via text 0419 941 274.