Western Australia recorded two grim COVID-19 records on Monday, cracking both its millionth case and 411 hospital admissions as a new coronavirus wave washes over the state.

Mark Duncan-Smith, WA President of the Australian Medical Association told Oliver Peterson on Perth Live that the mask mandate should’ve returned to the state once we had reached 350 patients.

“We’ve got 411 people in hospital, the hospital system is heaving at the moment and Charles Gardener Hospital has been in code yellow for the last two weeks. We’ve got patients waiting one to two days to get admitted through emergency departments because there are no beds,” he told Oly.

“This is all evidence of a health system that is in crisis.”

Mr Duncan-Smith further highlighted to Oly that mask wearing can reduce the spread of Covid by 20%, which in turn will reduce the heavy loss of health care workers that is currently occurring.

“I understand that wearing masks is not popular, but we’ve got a health system that is on its knees. We need to look at how we are going to reduce the load on the health care system so that it can continue to function and take care of West Australians.

There are further calls to also reduce the isolation period for people who test positive to Covid.

Press PLAY to hear the full argument by the AMA

Press PLAY to hear the Health Minister’s response to the AMA