CORONAVIRUS — VACCINATIONS — TARGET
675. Ms M.J. DAVIES to the Premier:
Welcome to the member for
Scarborough's mum, who is in the Speaker's gallery; that is
very special!
I note the Premier's refusal
to release a plan to safely reopen our borders.
(1) What
percentage of Western Australians has the Chief Health Officer advised must be
double vaccinated before the Premier can relax border restrictions?
(2) How long
after attaining the vaccination rates that are required will the borders be
relaxed, and has the Chief Health Officer provided the Premier advice on this?
Mr M.
McGOWAN replied:
(1)–(2) Obviously,
we have been consistent along this road; that is, we will bring down the border
with the COVID-infected states of New South Wales and Victoria when we get to
very high levels of vaccination. We plan on setting an exact date when we get
to between 80 and 90 per cent two-dose vaccination of Western Australians who
are over the age of 12 years. That will give us greater certainty about what
that date will be. We do not want to do it prematurely. We do not want to do it
too early. The Leader of the Opposition might have noted that we now do not
have a border with Queensland, Northern Territory, South Australia and Tasmania, so if people want to go on a holiday to
those jurisdictions, or if people from those
jurisdictions want to come here, that is fine. That is entirely possible,
provided that people fill out the G2G PASS and follow the requirements.
As far as I am aware, there has not been any exact formal advice on these
points, except for what I have said. We have regular conversations—I
mean, virtually daily—with the Chief Health Officer and other health
officials about these things to resolve these matters. I do not want to rush
things in a way that allows for COVID to come to Western Australia and for us
to have to put in place lockdowns and other restrictions that are occurring
elsewhere around Australia. I want us to get through Christmas, have a free
society and community, have business activity as normal and allow people to go
through a COVID-free Christmas period.