The Western Australian premier, Mark McGowan, says a hotel security guard and two of his housemates have tested positive for coronavirus.
But he says there is no need at this stage for another lockdown, although that may change by Sunday.
The guard worked at the Pan Pacific Hotel from 24-26 April. He and his housemates returned positive tests on Saturday afternoon, after being tested earlier that day.
Seven people were living in the house, including two guests from Canberra, and the other five people have tested negative. All of the people in the house have been moved to hotel quarantine.
“Contact tracers have been working and continued to work through other potential close contacts,” McGowan said.
“They are working as fast as they can to ensure we can have anyone who was potentially exposed be put in self isolation and tested as soon as possible.
“I ask everyone to co-operate with our contact tracing teams and follow the instructions.”
McGowan said that, because Perth had been under tighter restrictions than normal at the time, the guard had been in the community – but he was confident any further transmission of Covid-19 had been minimised.
“What has helped enormously is that, due to the interim restrictions we have had in place since Tuesday, they have significantly reduced movement in the community and everyone has been wearing masks,” McGowan said.
“That gives us some confidence that the risk of transmission is significantly lower than it would normally be.
“These factors and the fact we have picked up this case as early means we can avoid moving into a lockdown at this point.”
This content first appear on the guardian