NSW to move to 'extreme risk' from Thursday

Western Australians in New South Wales have until Wednesday to return home after the state government announced it planned to upgrade it to an extreme risk jurisdiction.

During a press conference this afternoon, Premier Mark McGowan announced the state government would elevate the state to ‘extreme risk’ from 12.01am next Thursday, just hours after New South Wales recorded 644 new locally-acquired of COVID-19.

Under the updated risk rating, travel will be restricted to Commonwealth, state and specialist officials.

Those deemed to be in extraordinary circumstances, as determined by the state emergency coordinator or the chief health officer,  will be required to return a negative PCR test, provide proof of vaccination and undergo quarantine in a state facility.

The move comes following updates to the state’s border control risk matrix, which introduced the ‘extreme risk’ category exclusively for states that record an average of more than 500 cases per day over a five to 14-day period.

Under the matrix, a state will be deemed high risk if it records between 50 to 500 community cases per day.

While he said the state’s situation was ‘heartbreaking’, Mr McGowan said the WA government needed to do everything it could to better handle the risk the worsening situation presented to the state.

“This change will be disruptive and frustrating for many however, I won’t stand for COVID outbreaks being brought into WA from growing outbreaks in the NSW community,” he said.

“We don’t take this situation lightly however my priority is the health of Western Australians first and foremost and we need to use every tool available to us to keep COVID-19 out of our community.”