Western Australia has reported 1,098 new local cases of COVID-19.
Seven new travel-related cases have also been reported.
The new cases include 422 self-reported positive rapid antigen tests, while 10,591 PCR tests have been completed across the state.
Fifteen people are now in hospital.
Level one restrictions expanded
Level one restrictions, which include venue capacity limits and home gathering restrictions, were expanded to the Kimberley on Saturday morning as authorities manage outbreaks in the region.
Broome beauty salon owner Kirstin Wimshurst said she worked to prepare her business after seeing how COVID-19 developed in the eastern states.
"We can sustain it for a while. We've got enough money saved up," she said.
"I don't really know how anyone can be shocked. This has been coming for a really long time."
Restaurant owner Jack Castellarin said he was remaining positive despite expectations of a difficult few months.
"Hopefully there won't be any more changes and there won't be any more lockdowns," he said.
"Hopefully in a couple of months, just like the rest of Australia, we'll come out the other side of it."
Close eye on remote communities as cases grow
As of 6pm on Friday, Beagle Bay had recorded four cases of the virus, and Bidyadanga 37.
Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services medical director Lorraine Anderson said she expected case numbers in remote communities to grow.
"COVID has now become real for people in the north-west of WA."
She said vaccination rates needed to increase because health facilities in the region did not have the capacity to handle a larger number of hospitalisations.
Ms Anderson said Bidyadanga had high first and second-dose vaccination rates, but only about 10 per cent of its population had received a booster dose.
She said they expected an uptick in coming days.
"Those people who were hesitant and just not sure about having the vaccine will probably change their mind now," she said.
Meanwhile in Kununurra, Miriwoong elder Ted Carlton said he thought the new Kimberley restrictions would help stop the spread.
"We'll rally together no doubt and get on top of it, with the preventative advice and all this type of stuff," he said.
"But we're a bit nervous now for our kids, our vulnerable people in the community, our old people and so on."
Kimberley residents taking 'this thing' seriously
President of the Shire of Broome, Harold Tracey, said the rise in cases was something that had been anticipated.
"We've been pretty well shielded from it in Western Australia, but given the amount of cases over east, I think we all knew it wasn't going to be too long before we copped it here," he said.
"We've got a rapid response team from Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Service that Vicki [O'Donnell] and her team have been working on and planning for the last 18 months, and they're doing a fantastic job out at Bidgey and Beagle Bay.
"Obviously we're going to get more numbers, but I think the impact will be less if people take note of restrictions."
Mr Tracey said he wanted to see community members continue to look after each other.
"Having been in Perth on and off for the last 12 months or so, the people in the Kimberley take this thing a lot more seriously than people in the metropolitan area, I think," he said.
"They realise the impact because we don't have large numbers of people to do everything."
WA in phase of 'exponential growth'
Curtin University School of Population Health professor Jaya Dantas said the state was currently in the exponential growth phase of the virus.
"Numbers will increase for the next six to eight weeks," she said.
"They will plateau sometimes, they will rumble around, but they will increase. Then they will reach a peak and there'll be a downward trend after that."
Professor Dantas said it was difficult to predict the right time to introduce stricter level two restrictions, which could see 4 square metre capacity limits introduced and a 10-person cap on at home gatherings, along with other measures.
"We'll have to see how we go — not so much with the case numbers rising, but with our hospitalisations," she said.
Professor Dantas said she believed people in WA were largely ready to be compliant with required restrictions to deal with rising cases, despite fatigue setting in.
"I think there is a certain amount of pandemic fatigue setting in," she said.
"It's 24 months since we've had lockdowns and restrictions.
"People are also observing that the other parts of Australia have opened, they have eased restrictions, also other parts of the world.
"But in Western Australia, we've been very compliant as a community."
