The state of Western Australia canceled plans to reopen its border to people from neighboring states on February 5 due to the surge of omicron variant Covid-19 cases in other parts of the country.
Cars drive past a Border Check Point on Indian Ocean Drive.
The images are from the same company.
In a press conference on Friday, the Western Australian premier said that he did not want to see a flood of disease because of the rapid spread of omicron.
The border restriction will be lifted, but not on a new date.
Businesses warned that the last minute decision could cause a labor shortage in the mining state and hamper its economy.
The change of plans will anger the Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, who has urged state governments to embrace living with the virus once vaccine targets are reached.
New South Wales, Australia's most populous state, reported 46 deaths on the day that the western state made its decision.
The rate was 86.69%. The percentage of Western Australia's eligible population who have been fully vaccined against Covid-19, according to a tracker run by the Sydney Morning Herald. State governments were urged by the Australian federal government to lift their restrictions once vaccine take crosses 80%.
Josh Frydenberg criticized the decision in an interview with Sky News stating that many West Australians will be very disappointed and they will be asking the question if not now, when.
There is a key background.
Australia relied on some of the world's strictest border control measures in 2020 to stop the spread of the coronaviruses. The federal government pivoted to a living with the virus strategy after being faced with a persistent delta variant outbreak last year. Since the start of the Pandemic, only nine deaths from Covid-19 have been reported in Western Australia, because it kept its borders shut and stuck with the elimination strategy. New Zealand may delay the reopening of its border due to Omicron, which is a holdout in Western Australia. China and Hong Kong have different border restrictions with different strategies to prevent large outbreaks. Questions about the long term viability of such a strategy have been raised by the highly transmissible nature of Omicron.
The border will remain shut indefinitely. When might the state reopen? ABC News
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