Life under social isolation or mandatory "stay home orders".

Western Australia's Perth, Peel and South West regions have entered a five-day lockdown.

It's going to result in a major change for the way people in these areas live their lives.

So what are the COVID lockdown rules for Perth and the regions, and how will they affect you? We break down the Government's rules for you below.

When can I leave home?
You can only leave home for essential reasons.

They include:

Shopping for essentials and medicine
Accessing medical or health care services
Exercise, but only within your neighbourhood for one hour per day
Work, if you cannot do so from home
You also can't have visitors, unless they are there to care for you if you are vulnerable.

There are some exemptions for people who need to travel to care for a vulnerable community member, and on compassionate grounds.

If you are visiting the Perth or Peel region from elsewhere you are being asked to stay there until the lockdown is over.

Should I wear a mask?
First and foremost, you are only able to leave your home for one of the above four reasons.

If that is the case, a mask is required at all times outside.

If you work indoors, wearing a mask in your workplace is mandatory.

If you are catching public transport, you must also wear a mask.

Should I get tested?
If you have symptoms — yes.

But also if you live or work in the Falkirk Avenue, Maylands area including Coles, Liquorland and the Maylands shopping precinct you must present for a test.

You must also get tested if you have been to any of the following exposure sites:

Coles Maylands supermarket on 25 January from 8pm to 10pm
KFC Maylands on 27 January from 6pm to midnight
Mitsubishi Motors car dealership in Midland on 27 January from 7pm to close
Spudshed, Coventry Village in Morley on 27 January from 8pm to midnight
ECU Joondalup on 28 January from 11am to 2pm
Consulate General of India on St Georges Terrace in Perth on 28 January from 12pm to 5pm
Halal Grocery Store in Cloverdale on 28 January from 7pm to 9pm
Venus Ladies and Gentleman Hair Design Maylands hairdressers on 29 January from 1pm to 3pm
Perth Convention Centre on 29 January from 4pm to 6pm
Nedlands Family Practice GP surgery on 29 January from 5pm to 6pm
Chemist Warehouse North Perth Pharmacy on 29 January from 5.30pm to 7.30pm
7-Eleven Ascot petrol station on 29 January from 8pm to 9pm
Coles Maylands supermarket on 29 January from 8pm 9pm
Puma Service Station in Burswood on 30 January from 11am to 12 midday.
Coles Express/Shell Service Station in Cloverdale on 30 January from 12 midday to 3pm
Pharmacy 777 at Maylands Park Shopping Centre 30 January from 2.30pm to 4pm.

These are the venues that must close, including:

pubs
bars
clubs
gyms
indoor sporting facilities
playgrounds
skate parks
cinemas
entertainment venues
the casino
religious venues
libraries
restaurants
cafes
However restaurants and cafes will be able to open for takeaway.

Funerals and weddings will also be impacted.

Funerals will be reduced to 10 guests and weddings scheduled for the next five days must be cancelled.

What is happening with schools and childcare?
WA Premier Mark McGowan said public and private schools in affected areas would close.

However those outside the lockdown zones will be open for students to attend class.

Mr McGowan described it as an extension of the school holidays for those in the affected zones.

It is not clear whether learning from home options will be offered by some institutions.

Mr McGowan said the Government would work with the private schools to look at how they deal with their boarders who had already arrived for the new school year.

"It is an issue, at this stage they are not any particular risk, we have got no indication that they are at risk but will obviously need to look at how we lock them down in the next week," he said.

Childcare centres will remain open for the children of people who cannot work from home.

Will my surgery go ahead?
Elective surgeries for category two and three will be suspended Tuesday, but category one and urgent category two surgeries will continue.

Patients are being asked not to contact hospitals, but rather wait for hospitals to contact them about rescheduling their appointments.

Can I still travel to WA?
The WA Premier Mark McGowan has recommended that other states and territories put a stop to travel into WA.

How did the patient contract COVID-19?
A security guard in his 20s was working at the Sheraton Four Points hotel which is one of the locations where international travellers are being quarantined.

The State Government said he was working on the same floor where there are positive cases of the highly transmissible UK variant of the virus.

The Premier said it was possible he had caught this variant.

The guard worked two 12 hour shifts on both the 26th and 27th of January.

Before this, on January 15, 17 and 23 he tested negative to the virus as part of routine testing of hotel quarantine workers.

Exactly how he caught the infection is under investigation.

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The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, has tightened coronavirus restrictions in the state after a worker in the Australian Open hotel quarantine system tested positive for Covid.

Andrews said the new case was not, at this stage, likely to affect the tennis tournament due to start on Monday but would require up to 600 players and support workers to have another Covid-19 test.

The premier, in a late-night press conference on Wednesday, said health authorities were working on the assumption the 26-year-old Noble Park man had contracted the UK variant of the virus and had likely infected others. Genomic test results had not yet been finalised.

The new state-wide restrictions mean that from Thursday the number of visitors allowed in a private home decreased from 30 to 15 and face masks were once again mandatory indoors. Those are the same rules that were in place at the start of January in response to the Black Rock cluster.

Related: Hotel quarantine worker tests positive to coronavirus in Victoria, health department says

A plan to allow more public and private-sector workers to return to the office from Monday – increasing office capacity to 75% – was also put on hold.

Andrews said the restrictions were introduced “through an abundance of caution” and he said there was “no need to panic”.

Contact tracing efforts and investigations to determine how the worker contracted the virus were in the early stages “but we have to assume that this person has, in fact, infected others”, the Labor leader said. Andrews urged anyone with the slightest symptoms to get tested.

The 26-year-old was working as a resident support officer as part of the Australian Open quarantine program at the Grand Hyatt in Melbourne. His last shift was on 29 January. He received a nasal swab test at the end of that shift in accordance with Victoria’s daily testing regime for all hotel quarantine workers. It was negative.

He subsequently developed symptoms and got a Covid-19 test on Tuesday. The results were finalised on Wednesday and provided to the premier at 6.30pm.

Andrews said contact tracers would looking at CCTV from the hotel but at this stage he believed there had been no breach of protocols. The premier said there were six cases of the UK variant in quarantine at the Grand Hyatt hotel.

“At early stages, this guy’s had no contact with any of them. So that’s … the nature of this thing. We just have to wait and do more of that detective work.”

The Victorian premier added: “We all have to assume the international strain is, in effect, the UK strain. This thing is spreading so quickly. Through an abundance of caution we’re assuming the worst.”

Related: Scott Morrison distances himself from Craig Kelly over unproven coronavirus therapies

Victorian authorities were also investigating how a returned traveller in hotel quarantine tested positive to the exact same UK variant of Covid as a family staying across the hall. They suggested the viral load was “so high” it jumped across the corridor.

Andrews said the Australian Open worker had been helping the contact tracing team. He and his housemates had been moved to managed isolation in a medi-hotel. His flatmates and other identified close contacts had been tested and contact tracers were working to identify other casual contacts.

Anyone who was at any of the eight places the man visited between 30 January and 1 February was advised to get a Covid-19 test on Thursday. “Please do not delay,” the state’s Covid response commander, Jeroen Weimar, said.

Weimar said 13 major testing sites in Melbourne’s south-east would be open from 8am to 8pm on Thursday with extended capacity. He warned there would still be long queues and he urged people to bring water and ensure they had enough petrol.

“We are also sending messages and reaching out to all of the work colleagues of this individual,” he said. “They will also be instructed to isolate and to get tested.”

Fire authorities were also contacting people who may have interacted with the man in his capacity as a volunteer for the Noble Park brigade of the Country Fire Authority.

Victoria had passed 28 days with no new locally-acquired Covid-19 cases – effectively elimination status. The chief health officer, Prof Brett Sutton, said he was confident the state would reach the elimination stage again even though tests revealed the hotel worker “probably had a high viral load”.

“We will do it again,” Sutton said. “If we have to do it 10 times over, we can do it. We’ve got the tools.”

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NSW Health has issued a precautionary alert for sites in Wollongong and south-eastern Sydney after a returned overseas traveller tested positive to COVID-19 on day 16, two days after leaving their mandatory two-week hotel quarantine.

NSW Health has issued a precautionary alert for sites in Wollongong and south-eastern Sydney after a returned overseas traveller tested positive to COVID-19 two days after leaving their mandatory two-week hotel quarantine.

In a statement issued on Sunday evening, the health department said the person was not showing any symptoms, but had been tested as part of an enhanced follow-up strategy for people returning from overseas.

They returned two negative tests during their 14 days in isolation.

The statement said the person has a low level of infection and their household contacts have so far returned negative results.

Their close contacts have already been identified and are in self-isolation.

The statement said investigations so far suggested the person was infected overseas, and there was no indication at this stage of transmission in hotel quarantine.

NSW Health has asked anyone who visited the following venues at the times listed to get tested and self-isolate until they receive further advice.

* Headlands Hotel, Headland Ave and Yuruga St, Austinmer — Tuesday, February 2, 1:00pm-3:00pm
* Bulli Beach Cafe, 68 Trinity Row, Bulli — Saturday, February 6, 1:30pm-4:00pm.

People who attended the following venues at the times listed are considered casual contacts, and NSW Health says they must get tested immediately and self-isolate until they get a negative result.

* Mootch & Me, 313 Bay St, Brighton Le Sands — Tuesday, February 2, 10:54am-12:00pm
* Optus, 17 Flinders St, North Wollongong — Thursday, February 4, 1:00pm-1:15pm
* Officeworks, 145 Princes Highway, Fairy Meadow — Thursday, February 4, 3:45pm-4:05pm; Friday, February 6, 3:00pm-3:25pm
Anyone who attended the following venues at the times listed are urged to monitor their symptoms.

* Woolworths, 5-9 Molloy St, Bulli — Wednesday, February 3, 9:15am-10:00am
* Corrimal Memorial Park, Wilga St, Corrimal — Wednesday, February 3, 12:00pm-1:00pm
* Thirroul Beach — Wednesday, February 3, 3:00pm-4:30pm
* Sublime Point Walking Track, 661 Princes Highway, Madden Plains — Thursday, February 4, 8:30am-10am
* Figtree Grove Shopping Centre, in particular Australia Post, Kmart, Blooms The Chemist, Subway; 19 Princes Highway, Figtree — Thursday, February 4, 2:00pm-3:30pm
* Fedora Pasta Factory, 10 Daisy St, Fairy Meadow — Friday, February 5, 3:30pm-3:35pm

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A Hotel Quarantine worker at the Holiday Inn at Melbourne Airport has tested positive to coronavirus (COVID-19). The individual was tested on 4 Feb, returning a negative result. They returned to work 7 Feb, developed symptoms, were tested and returned a positive result.

The individual is being interviewed and a full public health response is underway. We are contacting Holiday Inn Airport workers and others who are considered primary close contacts. They are required to immediately isolate, get tested and remain isolated for 14 days.

Initial exposure sites and times include:

Friday 5th February 2021
- Marciano's Cakes: Maidstone - 9:45am - 10:25am
- Dan Murphy's: Sunshine - 5:50pm – 6:30pm

Saturday 6th February 2021
- Off Ya Tree Watergardens: Taylors Lakes - 1:17pm - 1:52pm
- Dan Murphy's: Sunshine - 6:50pm - 7:30pm

If you have been at an exposure site in the specified times, you are required to immediately isolate, get tested and remain isolated for 14 days.

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Who will get what and when?
The federal government has unveiled a four- (or possibly five) stage vaccine rollout plan, with a fairly confusing naming system. Official start dates for these “phases” have not been released but Australia is aiming to have all of phase 1a and more than half of phase 1b – around 4 million people – vaccinated by the end of April.

Phase 1a: The first people to receive the vaccine will be quarantine and border workers, priority frontline healthcare workers, and staff and residents at aged care and disability centres. In total this will cover about 678,000 people and will probably use around 1.4m doses of the Pfizer vaccine, with the government leaving a pretty comfortable margin for error.

Phase 1b: This is the first large-scale rollout to the general public. The following groups will be eligible: everyone over 70, other healthcare workers, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people over 55, adults of any age with underlying medical conditions which make them vulnerable to the virus, and certain high-risk workers including army, police and those working in meat processing plants. This will cover around 6.14 million people and use up to 14.8m doses of mostly the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Phase 2a: Next the vaccine will be available to people in their 60s and 50s, all adult Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and all other critical and high-risk workers. This will cover 6.57 million people and use up to 15.8m doses of what will probably be the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Phase 2b: This will cover the rest of the Australian adult population, around 6.64 million people using up to 16m doses. This will probably be the AstraZeneca vaccine, although it’s possible the Novavax vaccine may be available if it proves effective.

Phase 3: This will cover all Australians under 18 if vaccinating children is recommended at that point. This will cover 5.67 million people and use up to 16m doses. At this point, there is no vaccine approved for use in Australia on children. Pfizer can so far only be administered to those 16 and older, and AstraZeneca, 18 and above.

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CooperDragon":2kf2bn4i said:

How are your vaccinations going there? I was online for a good 12hrs each day this weekend to set my parents up for their turn in line (both in their 70s) in New York. Website kept crashing due to equivalent of a ddos attack. The system is decent (but overworked) if you are tech savvy, but really counterintuitive for those who are needing it. Everyone I know is having to schedule for their parents. Finally got an appointment for my mom in their city. After several more hours I got an appointment for my dad at the next closest site about 120km away in Syracuse. I'm hopeful that Johnson & Johnson will get their vaccine approved soon in order to relieve the backlog. Meanwhile still no restrictions in my state. It's about -28c outside and people are still lining up to get into live music venues.

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CooperDragon":1wsk4sjb said:

I hope you are able to get set up quickly and efficiently. Which vaccines have been approved so far in NSW? My wife (healthcare worker) got the Moderna vaccine last month and felt flu like symptoms for a day after the second dose but has been fine otherwise.

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More than 35,000 of Sydney's frontline workers will roll up their sleeves to receive a COVID-19 vaccine within just three weeks from Monday.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian confirmed quarantine workers - including nurses, doctors, police officers, security guards, and cleaners - would be the first to receive their initial dose of the Pfizer vaccine.

The rollout will begin one week from the arrival of the first batch of doses in Australia on Monday.

Next in line will be healthcare workers whose work puts them at risk of being exposed to the virus, including staff at testing clinics, emergency departments, COVID-19 wards, intensive care units, and ambulance services, Ms Berejiklian said.

The vaccines will be administered by appointment at three central hubs located at Westmead, RPA and Liverpool hospitals, Ms Berejiklian confirmed on Wednesday morning.

Anyone who receives the vaccine will need a second dose a few weeks later.

NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said the priority was to protect workers at greatest risk of coming into contact with the virus.

An estimated 10,000 to 15,000 workers across the quarantine system will be covered in the first three weeks. The balance will target other health workers.

"We think this is a healthy number to have vaccinated in the next three weeks to cover us, but obviously the more you do, the better," Ms Berejiklian said.

Those eligible for the vaccine will be given a consent form and the opportunity to ask clinical staff questions about the vaccine and any underlying medical conditions they may have, Dr Chant said.

The known side effects associated with the Pfizer vaccine will be clearly described, she said.

Lachlan Prichard a police officer with St George Local Area Command said he was excited to get his vaccine, being one of the frontline workers the most at risk of being exposed.

"The ability to have that is extra reassurance for me that when I go into the community and to my family that I am protected," he said.

Bradley McEntee, a nurse manager for infection control in the quarantine system said the vaccine was a step forward to returning to normal life and reconnecting with his family after shielding the community from the virus for more than 12 months.

Gayathry Vellangalloorat, a cleaning services manager in NSW's Special Health Accommodation - where COVID-positive travellers are housed - said she felt privileged to be among the first people in Australia to receive the vaccine.

Ms Berejiklian said the government would have more to say about how the vaccine will be rolled out to the broader community in the next week.

The federal government is expected to release further information about the AstraZeneca vaccine after it was approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration on Tuesday.

It is expected that the majority of the public will be offered the AstraZeneca vaccine at this stage.

Ms Berejiklian said everyone who wants a vaccine will get one in due course.

The Premier said she would not be getting the vaccine early, despite her confidence in its efficacy.

"I would love to get mine early but I don't think it's fair. I think the people of the state would be upset if I jumped the queue, so I'll wait my turn," Ms Berejiklian said.

"I'm certainly excited about when my turn comes up. I think the vast majority of the community are looking forward to our turn ... but we have to protect those who are on the frontline first."

Dr Chant said she was incredibly excited about the rollout and expected the population would come forward to receive their vaccines en masse.

"We've been in a good position that we've been able to wait [for] the international experience with the vaccine and learn from that," she said.

"Being able to rationally engage with our colleagues in other nations to make sure that [this] goes as smoothly as possible in terms of implementation of the program."

NSW recorded no new locally acquired cases from 23,463 tests in the latest 24-hour reporting period. It's the 31st consecutive day of no community cases.

Queensland has recorded 41 days in a row of zero local cases while Victoria today recorded its first day of zero local transmission since February 9.

The stay-at-home order for people who have returned from Victoria to NSW is expected to expire today, Dr Chant said.

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Victoria’s five-day circuit breaker lockdown will be lifted from midnight, however gathering limits and mask rules will remain in place as authorities continue to monitor close contacts of cases linked to the Holiday Inn quarantine hotel outbreak.
Announcing no new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, premier Daniel Andrews staunchly defended the need for a snap lockdown, declaring it a “certainty” there would be “much higher” case numbers had he not shuttered the state from Saturday until Wednesday night.

The easing of restrictions – which takes effect from 11:59pm on Wednesday – will mean residents can leave their home for any reason, and the 5km travel limit will not apply.

Masks will still be required indoors, except for in a home. They will also be required for outdoor settings where physical distancing cannot be maintained.

Gathering limits will remain, with no more than five visitors to a home per day, and public outdoor gatherings limited to 20 people.

Restaurants, retail businesses, community facilities, entertainment venues and schools can reopen, and public and private sector offices can return to 50% capacity.

Crowds will be allowed to return to the Australian Open from Thursday, however safe capacity limits will be determined on Wednesday afternoon.

There will be no caps on funeral and wedding attendances, but these functions will have to adhere to the density limits of the venue. Churches, mosques and synagogues will also have to observe density rules.

Andrews said there would be far more than the current 19 active cases and 3,400 close contacts of cases if it weren’t for the lockdown - an action he said enabled authorities to get on top of cases linked to the Holiday Inn and a party in Coburg, which has nine infections linked to it so far.

“Total case numbers would be much, much higher and it is a certainty that I would not be reporting zero cases today and the fact that restrictions are coming off,” Andrews said.

Andrews refused to rule out further lockdowns in response to cases until “90 something per cent” of the country had been vaccinated.

“I’m not prepared to pretend to the Victorian community that this is over, there can be some notice period but we don’t have the luxury of giving people a month’s notice. I’m just not in the business of ignoring advice, or shopping around for advice that suits me,” he said.

Andrews also strongly rejected a claim he had provided “counterfactual” information about the timing that close contacts were told to isolate and exposure sites listed.

“I don’t accept, and I find it just absolutely inaccurate to describe what I have been saying as counterfactual. Victorians know what it’s like when this gets away from you and I simply won’t allow that to happen,” he said.

“I am so very proud of the way in which Victorians have stuck together and done this hard work over these last five days to deliver these outcomes. There is nothing counterfactual about that, it’s the story of 2020,” Andrews said.

Andrews also said that authorities would wait until 26 February to make decisions about easing restrictions further, as this would mark 14 days – or two incubation cycles – since the most recent cases of concern.

Victoria’s Covid testing commander, Jeroen Weimar, said cases could still emerge before next Friday, and echoed Andrews’ defence of the lockdown. He said authorities “discovered far more about this outbreak than we knew on Friday” in the first two days of the lockdown.

“Was this five-day period necessary? Absolutely...I’m not going to apologise for the fact that we pulled all that up,” Weimar said.

Chief health officer Brett Sutton said the lockdown was justified because of “an explosion in the number of exposure sites” linked to the Holiday Inn.

“When you’ve got that many people potentially exposed, you cannot afford to see cases pop up out of those exposed individuals who then have contacts with 20, 30, 40, 50 people.”

“We don’t know what might have happened in an alternative universe without all of the things we have put into play here,” he said.

“But I’m sure the accusation would have been there, that we should have gone earlier or we should have done a circuit breaker if we’d seen cases emerge in casual exposure sites or multiple locations where people were exposed,” Sutton said.

He also said mask use in Victoria had “almost certainly stopped some transmission that would have occurred”.

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The Director-General of Health today has confirmed the person reported to have died at Auckland’s North Shore Hospital on Saturday has been formally recorded as a Covid-19 death.
This brings the country’s death toll related to Covid-19 to 26.

The returnee tested positive for the virus after being transported to hospital from managed isolation for a non-Covid-19-related condition on February 5.

The Ministry of Health didn’t immediately confirm the cause of the person's death on Saturday.

“I continue to offer my deepest sympathy to all those affected by Covid-19,” Dr Ashley Bloomfield said.

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