Western Australia is set to relax its hard border restrictions to Victoria at the end of the weekend, allowing Victorians to once again travel to the western state, as long as they enter self-quarantine on arrival, and present a negative COVID-19 test.
After discussions on Friday afternoon, the WA Government agreed that from 12.01am on Monday, January 18, the hard border closure with Victoria will be scrapped, following the news that the state had recorded no new local cases for the ninth day running.
This means that Victorians are able to travel over to WA without needing a travel exemption, but they are expected to enter into a 14-day self-quarantine and present a negative COVID-19 test on day 11, before being allowed to move around the state.
Travellers entering WA will still need to complete a G2G Pass declaration, which confirms they don’t have any COVID-19 symptoms at their time of entry.
Premier Mark McGowan made the announcement on Friday evening, confirming that WA will consider Victoria as a “low risk” area from Monday morning, and backed the government’s decision to introduce a hard border on December 31 to keep the state safe.
“The re-introduction of a hard border with Victoria was necessary to protect Western Australians and minimise the risk of COVID-19 spreading in the WA community,” he said.
“It shows that with a controlled border, we can make adjustments swiftly to keep WA safe.”
Though the border is being eased to Victorians, the government still classifies New South Wales and Queensland as medium-risk jurisdictions, and travellers from those regions still require a travel exemption to enter WA. That also includes people who reside in low risk (VIC) and very low-risk zones (ACT, NT, SA and TAS) but travel through NSW or QLD to cross the border into Western Australia.
Elsewhere, South Australia is moving to ease its hard border with Greater Brisbane from 12.01am on Sunday, January 17, with travellers no longer needing to quarantine, but will need to have COVID-19 tests on days one, five, and 12. However, anyone who is has been in a ‘high-risk’ location will still have to quarantine.
