Western Australia's mask mandate on all public and passenger transport is over, marking the end of most of the state's COVID public health measures outside of hospitals and aged care.
While still encouraged in crowded indoor settings, face masks are no longer required on buses, trains, taxis, rideshares and domestic flights.
Residential aged and disability care visitation limits have also been eased, with no restrictions on the number of visits per day. Still, the limit of two people per visit will remain.
Most people who test positive for COVID-19, but have no symptoms, will only have to isolate for five days instead of seven, in line with the rest of the country.
And WA's daily COVID reports have come to an end, with case numbers, deaths and other figures to be published once a week.
Pandemic continues
The easing of most public health measures comes as case numbers continue to decline across Australia.
In WA, case numbers have been fluctuating around the 1,000 mark, with about 200 people in hospital with COVID.
University of Western Australia infectious diseases expert Barbara Nattabi said it was appropriate to move away from most COVID restrictions.
"The pandemic is not yet over. We still have the disease spread across the world," she said.
"But, the epidemic in Australia is basically over."
"Removing the masks is not so problematic. But, I would advise the government to keep a tab on whether or not the epidemic is going back up."
Vulnerable likely to self-impose COVID restrictions
When WA's borders opened in March, many in the older community and people with disability opted to avoid crowds and public activities out of fear of COVID.
The winding back of public health measures this time is comparatively a much smaller change, but vulnerable communities are still concerned about the impact.
The Chung Wah Association surveyed people at their community aged care centres, and found the majority would continue wearing masks on public transport.
"Around 75 per cent of them, they say they will continue to wear masks even after the lifting of these rules," chief executive Theresa Kwok said.
The Council on the Ageing WA hoped the wider community could appreciate the concerns of older West Australians, and continue to wear a mask on public transport and in crowded locations.
"When mask wearing is not mandatory, we're likely to see a lot of older people still wearing a mask, or perhaps avoiding places where there are mass gatherings," chief executive Christine Allen said.
"It's up to us as a community to take the responsibility."
Call for permanent measures
People with Disability Australia president Sam Connor was pushing to normalise measures for reducing disease transmission.
"We can't now use public transport or fly on planes safely," she said.
"There are people [with a disability] who haven't left home for three years ... it's a terrifying idea that you're going to be exposed."
Ms Connor said public health measures such as wearing masks indoors and improving ventilation do more than reduce the risk of COVID.
"The first year of COVID ... we had no flu in Australia," she said.
"It makes sense that we're going to have to keep people safe, keep people from repeatedly becoming unwell."
