Isolation requirements for close contacts of COVID-19 positive people be slashed from tomorrow, bringing Western Australia in line with the rest of the country. 

In a press conference, the State Government announced that from Tuesday, February 8, those living in the same household as an infectious person (or someone deemed to have been in close proximity by health authorities) will be required to isolate for seven days instead of 14. 

Seven day isolation periods will also apply to vaccinated arrivals from Wednesday, February 9. 

New guidelines for schools will take effect tomorrow and Rapid Antigen Tests will be used more broadly. 

“The reality is now with COVID spreading and Omicron spreading in Western Australia, the most transmissible variant. The road ahead is about to get very difficult, and so in many ways, the worst is still to come, and we are at the start of the pandemic now,” the Premier said during today’s press conference.

Under the new close contact and isolation rules, a person will be considered a close contact if they live with a positive case, are an intimate partner of a positive case, or have had 15 minutes or more of face-to-face contact, or more than two hours in a small room, with a case without masks being worn.

Mr McGowan said the changes were designed to reduce day-to-day life and business disruption as COVID cases in the community increase.

Along with the 26 local cases, WA recorded 10 travel-related COVID cases overnight, with 8007 people presenting for testing, a figure Ms Sanderson says is still too low.

The new isolation rules will come into effect from Tuesday, February 8