Hospital visiting hours have been reduced to just two hours twice a day across all public hospitals in Perth in response to growing COVID-19 cases in WA.
Visiting hours for regular visitors will be 10am to 12pm and 5pm to 7pm, seven days a week.
"The new hours also provide the public with consistency so that no matter which of our hospitals your loved one is in, you can easily know when you can visit them," Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson said in a statement.
"Proof of vaccination is now a requirement for all public hospital visitors and the easiest way to provide this proof is by using the ServiceWA app."
The Health Minister also recommended visitors be limited to the same two visitors per patient each day, with a maximum of two visitors at any given time.
It comes after 177 new locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 were recorded in WA, the highest single-day figure for the state on record.
Two cases detected at Hollywood hospital
Meanwhile, Hollywood Private Hospital in Nedlands has recorded two positive COVID-19 cases among staff who picked up the virus in the community.
A spokeswoman for the hospital said urgent contact tracing was done in consultation with WA Health.
"Given the use of PPE and high staff vaccination rates, only a small number of staff have been identified as close contacts," she said.
"They are all required to undergo testing and remain in isolation pending their results.
"No cases of COVID-19 were acquired in the hospital and no patients are being treated for COVID-19 at the hospital."
On Thursday night, WA Health listed three more hospitality venues as exposure sites requiring people who were there to isolate for 7 days.
These included the Old Synagogue in Fremantle on Friday night, the Gold Bar in Subiaco after 10pm on Saturday, and the Federal hotel in Fremantle on Sunday night after 10:30pm.
'Amber alert' declared at WA hospitals
The restricted visiting hours began on Thursday as hospitals in much of WA shifted into an amber alert level in recognition of growing community cases under its framework for System Alert and Response (SAR) to COVID-19.
Amber means the state is "COVID-alert" as the disease spreads in the community amid concerns over vaccination rates and/or testing capacity.
Amber alert measures being rolled out in hospitals include:
- Increased screening and testing of patients
- Strengthened PPE requirements for staff
- Pre-admission testing of elective surgery patients
- Options for rapid antigen tests (RAT) for some outpatient services
- RATs on arrival for patients undergoing specialist day services including renal dialysis, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, transplant patients, or immunosuppressed patients
- RATs for some community dental services
- RATS for visitors, essential carers, and parents and guardians in high-risk areas or for vulnerable patients.
The Perth/Peel, South West, Wheatbelt and Great Southern regions moved to full amber alert on Thursday while the Pilbara was placed on an interim amber level and will move to a full amber alert from Monday.
The Kimberley, Mid-West, and Goldfields will move to interim amber on Monday, and full amber a week later.
"SAR is about responding to the anticipated surge in COVID-19 community transmission and to avoid disruptions and allow continuation of services," Chief Health Officer Andy Robertson said.
"WA hospitals will continue to provide excellent health care to the Western Australian community.
"This is about supporting hospitals and health services to navigate the increased risks of COVID-19 transmission that come with increased case numbers, in a consistent and coordinated way."
COVID hits another aged care provider
It comes after another aged care provider, Amana Living, reported two cases of COVID-19 in separate incidents.
One was a student nurse who worked at the Amana Living Kinross Care Centre this week.
The student nurse is now isolating at home and the facility has been closed to all visitors, and residents and staff are being tested.
Phone and video calls with relatives are being facilitated.
The second case was a community support worker who visited clients at home in Perth's south-east.
They have all be contacted and advised to get tested.
An Amana Living spokesperson said both workers were wearing masks, are fully vaccinated, and followed all COVID-19 procedures.
Three other aged care facilities in Perth and Mandurah have recorded COVID cases in recent weeks with defence personnel deployed to help at Juniper Cygnet aged care facility in Bentley.
In a statement, Juniper said five residents at its Cygnet facility who had tested positive to COVID-19 had now recovered.
But another five residents and four staff continue to record positive test results.
AMA calls for tighter restrictions
The WA President of the AMA, Mark Duncan-Smith, has welcomed the hospitals' move to an amber alert.
"It ramps up things with respect to PPE, and also testing and screening of patients presenting to hospital, to reduce the risk of the need for furloughing of health care workers," he said.
Dr Duncan-Smith also renewed calls for the government to implement restrictions similar to what South Australia brought in when its Omicron outbreak began to take off.
That included limiting private gatherings to 10 people, requiring people to work from home wherever possible, capacity limits at venues, and a ban on dancing except at weddings.
The AMA WA President pointed to South Australian modelling, which suggested without those restrictions, SA's daily case numbers would have reached tens of thousands, instead of its actual peak of just under 6000 daily cases reached on January 14.
WA cases could hit 9,000 in April
Dr Duncan-Smith said applying the same modelling to WA would suggest a peak could arrive in April at just over 9,000 daily cases by April, but said that caseload would not cause the health system to be overwhelmed.
But Dr Duncan-Smith said the modelling could not be perfectly applied to WA because the state had a significantly higher vaccination rate than SA did.
"Nowhere else in the world has had as high a vaccination rate as we have in WA, and then had the Omicron outbreak," he said.
Dr Duncan-Smith again called on the government to publish its own Omicron-based modelling and provide details of its planned restrictions.
Meanwhile, the Australian Hotels Association said it would strongly oppose venue restrictions like those seen in South Australia, including a 50 per cent capacity limit.
"South Australia had the worst model in Australia, total overkill, and it was a true nanny-state mentality," said AHA WA president Bradley Woods.
