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Open
As of today (March 3rd), Western Australia is open again. For those who are vaxed, no quarantine is required unless there are positive covid tests and symptoms.
The numbers continue to increase but the current prediction is that our peak will be in the next couple of weeks. It seems the vaccination may be helping keep numbers down. There was another death reported today but the hospitalisation rate is quite good. Today there were over 2400 cases reported and I think only 22 are in the hospital.
We do have more restrictions in place now, which limit some events to the point they have been cancelled. I just saw that one of the food truck events will stop running for the rest of the season as the logistics are too hard to work around. The fair we went to last year was also cancelled at some point, which is a shame because we really enjoyed that. But we had a covid free state at the time so things were different.
One thing I have noticed is that the hot spots almost all are outside of the Perth area. I know there are cases locally but it would seem they are worse in some of the country towns. At least that’s my impression.
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Opening borders
It’s been a long time coming but Western Australia’s borders are opening up on February 5th. The announcement came yesterday just as we reached 80% double vaccination in the state. This means I can go overseas and avoid hotel quarantine when I return. It’s a relief to have a date in sight and now I can look at possible travel for next year. It’s going to be a bit strange at first as COVID will actually be in circulation in the community once we open. Apparently, our state has only had one death from COVID-19, according to what I heard at the press conference yesterday. The premier claims our hospital system is prepared but I’m not totally convinced. However, we should be at or near 90% vaccination by then, and hopefully, that means fewer patients from COVID requiring beds. This is in a state where ramping (leaving patients on beds awaiting treatment) is widespread right now, often for hours.