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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 923 asked in the Legislative Assembly on 17 November 2020 by Mr M.J. Folkard

Parliament: 40 Session: 1

CORONAVIRUS — INTERSTATE BORDER RESTRICTIONS — SOUTH AUSTRALIA

923. Mr M.J. FOLKARD to the Minister for Health:

I refer to the decisive action taken by the state government in responding to the recent outbreak of COVID-19 in South Australia. Can the minister update the house on the measures being undertaken to ensure that our hotel quarantine processes remain strong, and outline any other measures that have been implemented to ensure Western Australians are being kept safe and strong?

Mr R.H. COOK replied:

I thank the member for Burns Beach for the question. It is an important one because we know that a decisive and speedy response and decision-making is absolutely vital for getting any outbreak of this disease under control. The McGowan government's response has been that: it has been decisive, rapid and focused on keeping Western Australians safe and strong.

I acknowledge the great work done by all government agencies in responding to the call to act on the decisions made by the government and for making sure that they put those changes in place that are necessary for keeping Western Australians safe. WA Health has been working closely with government agencies and airlines to prepare for and manage the influx of arrivals into the state post the changes to the border requirements, in particular to prevent the co-mingling of passengers from very low risk states, low-risk states and medium-risk states to ensure that the airport infection control processes are in place.

WA nursing staff numbers were boosted at the airport to meet the demand for the increased passenger arrivals. Passengers are required to complete a health declaration via the G2G PASS app and undergo airport health screens, including temperature checks. All passengers with an elevated temperature of 37.5 degrees and above will be offered a COVID-19 test at the airport clinic. Anyone who is symptomatic and has a COVID test at the airport will be required to go straight home and isolate until they receive their results. To date, 521 971 COVID-19 tests have been performed Western Australia. Of those, 112 000 were done in regional Western Australia. WA Health has contacted exempt travellers for over 22 weeks now, offering daily monitoring.

The unfolding situation in South Australia obviously makes us reflect strongly upon our hotel quarantine arrangements. The hotel quarantine arrangements in WA are under intense oversight by the State Health Incident Coordination Centre representatives. We examine all potential incidences and breaches by hotel management and security management, with immediate investigation and rectification if that has occurred. Regular meetings are held between hotel and security management and regular audits are conducted for infection prevention and control, including staff training for security workers and hotel staff. It also involves strong compliance with infection control and the use of personal protective equipment by all agencies.

The situation in South Australia gives us pause to reflect. As a result of that situation, we are extending our DETECT Borders program—our voluntary testing program—for all our border healthcare and security workers and the like to transition to mandatory testing of all high-risk workers, similar to the transport and logistics testing regime, which is a seven-day rolling testing arrangement for our high-risk hotel workers. These are all important measures. They are there for a reason. They are there to keep Western Australians safe. The Department of Health has done an outstanding job to make sure that we continue to keep an eye on our hotel and border arrangements, and it has done Western Australians proud. We are very pleased with the work that has been done.