WA Premier Mark McGowan says he is confident now is the right time to ease most COVID restrictions, but still will not put a date on when the state of emergency will end.
It came as WA recorded another 10 historical deaths, all from last week.
They include a man in his 90s, four men and three women in their 80s, and a man and a woman in their 70s.
In the last reporting period, 8,392 new cases were reported, with 43,408 active cases in the state.
Of those, 253 are in hospital with nine in ICU, with both figures remaining relatively steady.
Cases could rise as a result of eased restrictions: CHO
A swathe of rule changes announced on Tuesday will take effect from 12:01am on Friday, including the removal of mask and proof of vaccination mandates, capacity limits and the need for domestic travellers to be triple-dose vaccinated.
Written advice from the state's Chief Health Officer suggested cases could rise as a result of the changes.
Dr Andy Robertson suggested that could cause other issues, like fewer children attending school and critical worker shortages.
But speaking from isolation after testing positive last week, Premier Mark McGowan said he was confident the time was right to lift many of the rules.
"To continue with restrictions when all the advice is we're past the peak and all our systems are operating effectively ... beyond such time as the medical advice indicates that we can remove them, I don't think I could have justified that," he told ABC Radio Perth.
"Whilst our infection rates are still in the thousands each day, because of vaccinations, the impact of those is relatively mild."
The Premier said he was feeling better, after a "rough" few days with the virus, as was his son who was in a serious condition in hospital because of the virus.
"He was very sick there for a while," he said.
"It hits different people in different ways, that's been our family's experience."
Question mark over quarantine facility
The gradual scrapping of quarantine rules for arrivals into WA could mean the purpose-built isolation facility, which is being constructed on Perth's outer fringes, is no longer required by the time it opens.
As the Commonwealth project nears completion following several delays, Mr McGowan said the government was having to think about how it could be used.
The only group required to complete hotel quarantine currently are unvaccinated international arrivals.
Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson said on Tuesday that measure would be reviewed in four weeks, potentially leaving no use for the facility.
"It's obviously there for an emergency, but last time we had a pandemic was 100 years ago, so we don't want it sitting there for 100 years," Mr McGowan said.
Booster rate almost at 80 per cent
Mr McGowan acknowledged some people would be anxious about easing COVID restrictions, but pointed to WA's third-dose rate, which currently sits around 79 per cent, as a key reason for the shift in strategy.
"That's because we did difficult things and [introduced] difficult rules to get people vaccinated, but it's paid dividends," he said.
Vaccination rates in the state have been helped by wide-ranging mandates, including those that required patrons at many venues to be double-dose vaccinated.
But with almost all West Australians now double vaccinated, Mr McGowan said that requirement could not be justified.
"All of that effort by cafes, restaurants, and all that sort of things is for less than 1 per cent of the population," he said.
Despite the change for venues, many West Australians will still need to be triple-dose vaccinated within a month of becoming eligible in order to keep their jobs under wide-ranging mandates.
Mr McGowan said keeping that in place was necessary to continue to increase the third-dose rate, and would remain "for the foreseeable future", and until that rate was "way over" 80 per cent.
He denied it was about punishing the unvaccinated, saying "it's trying to save their lives and save their health".
Regional development minister Alannah MacTiernan said those rules were important to help prevent "cataclysmic" staff shortages caused by outbreaks.
"That is part of the thinking of trying to keep the workplaces as low risk as possible, at least over the coming months," she said.
Business support packages expanded
Support packages to help struggling businesses will also be expanded, the government announced.
A total of $12 million will be spent trying to attract people back to the Perth CBD and Northbridge.
The government has set aside $4 million, to give businesses $100,000 grants to hold events like markets, long-table dinners, live music performances and food and wine events.
They will also have the opportunity to apply to use locations like Elizabeth Quay and Yagan Square.
The grants will be available for 12 months from the start of July, with applications opening next month.
Yagan Square will also be boosted with $7 million going towards revamping the Market Hall precinct, with $1 million also allocated to activating empty and unused building spaces.
In addition, businesses that saw a 30 per cent drop in turnover during any two-week period between the start of the year and the end of this month will now be eligible for grants between $3,750 and $37,500.
Another set of grants has also been tweaked, dropping the turnover reduction threshold from 50 per cent to 40 per cent, and increasing payments to sole traders and micro businesses.
Large hospitality businesses with payrolls between $4 million and $20 million will also see the threshold for a three-month payroll tax waiver drop from 50 per cent to 40 per cent.
Shadow treasurer Steve Thomas said it was good to see the criteria softened.
“That’s a recognition that these packages did not do the job in the first place,” he said.
He was especially supportive of the money to try to bring people back into the CBD, saying it was necessary to avoid “a very long, slow death”.
“There’s no other solution to this," Dr Thomas said.
"It is [either] revitalise the city, or leave it as one of the least interesting parts of Perth.”
Government hangs on to special powers
The Premier has also defended keeping WA in a state of emergency indefinitely, which gives the government a broad range of powers, when jurisdictions like Victoria have introduced pandemic-specific laws.
"So we'll have to put in place other laws to do exactly what we're doing now under this law? It doesn't make any sense," he said.
"Drafting laws and the like takes time, and then we'll have all the controversy over doing something else.
"As of Friday it really has minimal impact on people's lives. It's just three words that allows us, under the law, to put in place those minimal restrictions."
Police say powers 'absolutely required'
That view was shared by Acting Police Commissioner and State Emergency Coordinator Col Blanch, who said the powers are "absolutely required".
He also said Operation Tide, which has been responsible for managing and enforcing many of the state's COVID rules, will conclude in the coming weeks.
At the height of the pandemic it was staffed by about 450 officers, but only around 60 remain at the moment.
"It's probably operating on a skeleton crew from Friday, but we'll look to wind that up in the coming weeks," he told 6PR.
Acting Commissioner Blanch said many officers will be returned to their usual duties.
"They'll get a preference, they'll get to go to places where there are either vacancies or we want to put more police in," he said.
"We've put a lot more police in the city … and the Northbridge areas. We need more police in regional WA.
"We'll send police to where they need to be for the community."
