WA's Deputy Premier is warning the state is headed for more disruptions to services, with a record 2,847 new COVID-19 cases detected and the number of people in hospital continuing to grow.
The latest reported infections bring the total number of active cases in WA to 14,458, with 48 in hospital — up from 36 yesterday.
None of the hospital cases are in ICU.
The majority of new cases, 1,530, were self-reported through rapid antigen tests.
The remaining 1,317 were detected through 11,632 PCR tests, a significant increase from the previous day's 8,828 tests, despite yesterday being a public holiday.
Bus services hit, other 'challenges' ahead
Bus services in Perth have been disrupted after a number of drivers from Transperth's Morley depot were forced into isolation.
It means some less-active services across more than 30 routes may be cancelled.
Deputy Premier Roger Cook said people should expect to see similar situations elsewhere.
"I'd just urge everyone to be patient and to be understanding," he said.
"But from time to time, we will be challenged in this whole process."
Opposition calls for 'rethink' on close contacts
Shadow treasurer Steve Thomas said the government should have had plans in place to deal with a disruption to bus services.
Dr Thomas said it showed the government needed to rethink how it deals with close contacts.
"The government needs to have a proper plan in place for who close contacts are and how we manage that," he said.
He warned more industries would suffer if better plans were not put in place.
Mr Cook said close contact rules were constantly being reviewed, but that any changes needed to balance limiting disruption with reducing spread.
Sunday's change to the rules for parents of children who were deemed close contacts at school was an example of that, Mr Cook said.
"Potentially it will result in faster spread, but at the moment the spread of the disease is very steady," he said.
"Clearly the public health officials are of a view that that was a common-sense approach to what is obviously a difficult situation if your child isn't positive.
"We will continue to look at the rules and make sure that we modify them as we go along to ensure they are fit for purpose."
CBD occupancy rate plummets
Dr Thomas also said the government should be doing more to encourage people into the city.
His comments came after Property Council of Australia research showed occupancy levels in office buildings had fallen to the lowest level of the pandemic, at 55 per cent of pre-COVID levels.
"When you create an environment that makes it highly desirable to stay home, that's what people are doing," he said.
"We need an environment in the Perth central business district that attracts people in, rather than encouraging them to stay away, otherwise those small businesses just can't survive."
SafeWA check-ins still vital: Cook
Mr Cook also encouraged people to continue using the SafeWA app, even though the government's list of exposure sites was now almost exclusively in regional areas.
On the page, WA Health says only high-risk exposure sites would be listed where contact tracers could not identify all close contacts.
"It's important we know where people are contracting the disease and the context in which they are contracting the disease," Mr Cook said.
"In addition to that, Health from time to time will take a view that a particular venue or a particular episode of spread of the disease is of high risk, and then we need to contact everyone who is in that particular venue."
WA Health no longer publicly reports the number of SafeWA scans each day.
The latest figure was from March 1, when 1,659,302 scans were recorded.
That remains in line with use of the app across the first six months of its widespread use last year, when an average of 1,598,106 scans were made each day.
