Close contact rules have been relaxed for police and health staff to keep them at work, as Western Australia reported more than 1,000 new COVID-19 cases for the first time.
The state has recorded 1,043 new infections, including 1,039 local cases and four linked to travel.
There are currently 12 people in hospital with the virus.
An outbreak in WA's largest remote Aboriginal community of Bidyadanga in the Kimberley continues to worsen with another 10 cases reported, bringing the total to 27.
'No cause for panic': Premier
Premier Mark McGowan said even though the dramatic rise in case numbers was expected, it may come as a shock to West Australians.
"Many may know someone who has caught the virus, many more know someone who is isolating," he said.
Mr McGowan urged people to ensure they were prepared for illness or isolation, and for people living alone to have someone to contact to help with food delivery and checking in over the phone.
The Premier also relayed the most "current and up-to-date data" he had been given about active case numbers in the regions across the state, as of 11am on Friday.
The figures usually encompass case numbers from across the state, recorded up to 8pm the day before.
He said there were 1,062 cases in the east metropolitan area, 967 in the north metropolitan area, 587 in the south metropolitan area, 46 in Goldfields/Esperance, 2 in the Great Southern, 31 in the Kimberley, 4 in the Mid West including the Gascoyne, 31 in the Pilbara, 37 in the South West and 7 in the Wheatbelt.
Plan to keep police and health staff working
The Premier announced "very high caseload settings" would be introduced for police and health workers, including doctors, nurses, and pharmacists, to "ensure our most essential workers in a pandemic are prepared for what is to come".
The settings mean if one of those workers is a close contact but asymptomatic, they can keep working under strict conditions, including daily testing.
"In the event symptoms develop, they must stop working, and follow the normal symptomatic close contact rules," Mr McGowan said.
"In the event they return a positive RAT test, they are then a positive case and must follow positive case rules."
Mr McGowan reinforced the settings would only apply to police and health workers at first, and while they would not be applied more widely at this stage, the state was "getting close".
Health measures expanded state-wide
WA is now set to expand its public health and social measures state-wide as Omicron spreads in growing numbers.
Level one restrictions will apply in the Kimberley from 6:00am tomorrow, while the same rules will roll out to the Gascoyne, Mid West and Goldfields-Esperance regions from 6:00am on Monday.
The restrictions have already been in place in regions like Perth and Peel since the start of the week, and include capacity restrictions for venues and home gatherings limited to 30 people.
Mr McGowan said he understood the changes would be difficult for some.
"Some parts of WA have never had these kinds of rules in place, many parts of WA have avoided lockdowns, and these kinds of restrictions for the past two years," he said.
He acknowledged the move to level one restrictions state-wide would be "less than ideal" for many regional businesses, but said the recently announced financial support would also be available to them.
There are now 12 COVID-19 cases in WA hospitals, but none are in ICU.
The Australian Medical Association's WA branch president Mark Duncan-Smith welcomed the rollout of level one restrictions across the state, and said it was the appropriate level of health measures for now.
"AMA WA had predicted we would hit a thousand cases in March; we're three days early, but it's tracking as we expected at this stage," Dr Duncan-Smith said.
He renewed calls for people to get vaccinated.
"The large amount of disease that is now in the state, especially in rural and remote areas, is testimony to the fact that people should not be hesitant at this stage," he said.
'We're probably not capturing everyone'
WA Chief Health Officer Andy Robertson said while over 11,500 tests were completed at state clinics yesterday, there was likely to be a number of people with COVID-19 in the community who did not realise it and were not getting tested.
"There is quite a lot of asymptomatic disease out there, particularly in younger groups who may be triple vaccinated. They may have very mild symptoms or no symptoms at all," he said.
"We're probably not capturing everyone."
He said going forward, the key focus for authorities would be hospitalisations and people receiving intensive care treatment.
Dr Robertson said while he did not know the current breakdown of how many of the cases in hospital had been vaccinated, it was likely the information would be shared in the future.
"It probably won't be done on a daily basis to protect people's privacy, but we will look probably on a weekly basis at providing information on how many people in hospital were vaccinated," he said.
Warning hospital cases set to jump
Dr Robertson said the official case numbers were on track with what modelling had predicted, and warned hospital figures were lagging behind daily cases.
"The hospitalisations tend to be two to three weeks behind," he told ABC Radio Perth.
The surge in new cases comes after 732 new infections were reported yesterday, when the Premier said he expected WA would soon be recording more than 1,000 new cases per day.
Further restrictions under discussion: CHO
The Chief Health Officer said there were numbers in the modelling that could indicate when level two restrictions would be rolled out, but they were still under discussion, and he would not reveal what they were.
Level two public health and social measures could include stricter venue density rules, home gatherings limited to 10 people, and masks for all people in Year 3 and above in indoor public settings.
Dr Robertson said the trigger for level two measures would be based on "the modelling of current case numbers and what hospitalisations that will produce".
He said "very high case load" changes would also be considered once COVID-19 impacts started to be seen in critical industries, including health, emergency services and residential aged care.
"It won't mean a lot to most people, but in certain industries where there are critical staff needed to do a job, we will then look at them being able to return as close contacts, but having daily rapid antigen tests," he said.
Clarity needed on restrictions trigger: Opposition
WA Liberals leader David Honey said transparency on the numbers behind decisions was vital, with the public entitled to know what case loads would trigger tighter restrictions.
"We saw that nonsense around the modelling being delayed, the results not being given to the public of Western Australia."
He said businesses were not being given time to prepare.
"Imagine, you're hiring staff, working out rosters, you need to know," he said.
