Premier Mark McGowan told reporters on Wednesday the Covid-19 situation continued to be “encouraging”, with the number of hospitalisations going down.“Cumulative cases since the start of our outbreak are now tracking below what was predicted, and hospital and ICU admissions are significantly below what was expected,” he said.Mr McGowan announced that from 12.01am on Thursday, the 500-person cap at all hospitality venues, nightclubs and function centres would be lifted.“This will be welcomed by many venue owners, hospitality workers and partygoers this weekend,” he said. All limits on private gatherings, both indoors and outdoors, will also be scrapped.Check-ins will also be dumped everywhere except at hospitals.Rapid antigen tests will no longer be required for international and domestic travellers.However, arrivals at Perth Airport will still be provided with a free RAT to use and must register a positive result with WA Health.Mr McGowan further announced WA would move to the national definition of close contacts. It means only household members and intimate partners of positive cases will be forced to isolate, as well as those who have spent at least four hours of cumulative contact, without wearing a mask, in a home with a positive case. People currently in isolation under the broader definition can leave isolation at midnight if they do not have any symptoms. However, this only applies to people defined as a close contact because they had at least 15 minutes of contact where a mask was not worn, or spent more than two hours within a small room with a case during their infectious period where masks were removed.“To be clear, this does not apply to people who are deemed a household close contact — they need to complete their isolation period,” Mr McGowan said.Mr McGowan said schools would no longer need to contact trace classrooms when term two begins.Cases in classrooms will no longer force students into isolation either.The Premier said WA was getting closer to achieving its “soft landing”, describing it as remarkable that the state had avoided mass loss of life while minimising the impact of the virus on the community and the economy.He said authorities would continue to monitor the situation in other states as they went through subsequent Omicron waves.“I think it’d be fair to say WA has had the best outcomes in the world,” he said.It comes as WA recorded two new historical deaths overnight — a man aged in his 30s and a man aged in his 90s.WA Health reported 7426 new infections overnight — up from 6349 the previous day — taking the total number of active cases to 39,591 – a slight drop.There are now 215 people with Covid-19 in hospital — down from 236 on Tuesday.This includes four in intensive care — down from seven the previous day.Among the new cases, 2701 were confirmed via PCR tests, while the remaining 4725 were identified from self-reported positive rapid antigen tests.A total of 12,712 PCR tests were conducted on Tuesday.WA has recorded 257,997 cases since the pandemic began.The state now has a third dose vaccination rate of 77.5 per cent.
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