A woman in her 80s who had contracted COVID-19 has died in Western Australia, with the number of new cases surging past 7,000 again.
Daily case numbers had hovered around the mid-to-high 5,000 mark for the last three days, after reaching a record of 7,151 last Thursday.
But Premier Mark McGowan said this morning there were 7,075 new cases, with 180 people in hospital and six of them in intensive care.
He said the death of a woman in her 80s had been reported by police yesterday.
"Unfortunately, a lady passed away on Sunday with or from COVID," he said.
There are now 38,742 active cases in the state.
Of the new cases, 2,213 were confirmed by PCR tests and 4,862 by a rapid antigen tests.
The number of hospital cases is a new record, surpassing yesterday's figure of 163.
WA's third vaccination dose rate stands at more than 72.6 per cent.
'Debilitating' restrictions to be considered
Health authorities had predicted WA would reach its peak of around 10,000 cases last week.
But that never happened, and now Chief Health Officer Andy Robertson has revised predictions to suggest the peak will occur in the "coming weeks".
Frustrated business owners want to know how long level two restrictions will now last after the Premier had initially said he hoped they would only be in place for one month — a period that would have seen them ending around the end of this month.
Owners of some of the hardest-hit businesses are concerned the one-month hit to their bottom line will drag on.
Mr McGowan said he was aware the level two restrictions were "debilitating" for businesses, and he wanted them removed as quickly as possible.
But he did not say when that would be.
"We'll consider the level two restrictions and whether that can come off in the coming days," he said.
The Premier added it was very hard to determine whether WA had reached its peak in cases, but with high vaccination rates and mask wearing, the state was "managing to keep the numbers down".
A spokeswoman for Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson said while cases were rising, hospitalisations and ICU admissions were "tracking well", and level two restrictions would be reviewed at the end of the month as planned.
Liberals call on Premier to review restrictions
Liberal Leader David Honey said the restrictions were having a devastating impact on businesses and the construction industry.
He said the government knew COVID-19 hospital presentations were well below expectations and so restrictions could be reviewed now.
He cited Australian Hospitality Association figures of 55 per cent hotel occupancy compared to pre-pandemic levels.
"They don't need to be this carte blanche, they can do it sensibly to deal with the issues of business and also make sure community safety is protected," the Liberal leader said.
