Split rosters, reserve staff and a healthy dose of luck — that is how Perth businesses are preparing for the peak of Omicron infections expected to hit in the next few weeks.
But with daily case numbers only around a quarter of what they are expected to be at the peak, many think things will get worse before they get better.
"It's a marathon, not a race," was how James Pearson from western suburbs supermarket The Herdsman described it.
Among a variety of other preventative measures, the store made the pricey decision to give all of its approximately 120 staff two free rapid antigen tests (RATs) to use before work for when they felt unwell.
"It's a big cost, but it's all part of it at the moment," Mr Pearson said.
"It's a bigger cost to have a bunch of staff that can't come in."
Also on the table are measures designed to make sure staff do not meet the definitions of a close contact, including split break times and break rooms, and strict compliance with mask mandates.
Critical worker protocols to come
Businesses in all sectors across the state are being confronted with similar decisions about how best to protect their workforces.
Some, including in transport and logistics, supermarkets, schools and mining, will find some relief when critical worker protocols are introduced at an undefined "very high caseload".
It will mean asymptomatic close contacts will not have to quarantine as long as they return a negative RAT result daily and abide by other rules.
Currently, those rules only apply to healthcare staff, police, and workers at two private businesses — D'Orsogna's Palmyra factory, and the Woolworths distribution centre near the airport.
For every other business, an employee being deemed a close contact rules them out of action for seven days, unless they can work from home.
Even still, Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA chief economist Aaron Morey said most were handling things well.
"Businesses, like the rest of the community, are adapting as best they can in these difficult times," he said.
"Many of our members have put in place A teams and B teams, are retraining staff, skilling them into other areas so they can build in redundancy within the business."
Mr Morey said some were also hiring extra staff to have on hand when others were ruled out.
Pharmacy staffing hit hard
GP surgeries and pharmacies are among those already working under the critical worker protocols.
Pharmacies that have been struggling to get enough staff for the last two years have been hit by positive cases or close contact rulings, including one store that lost five of its staff.
"Those [critical worker] rules will be of most benefit to smaller pharmacies who are very dependent on one or two pharmacists," the Pharmacy Guild's Matthew Tweedie said.
"If you've lost your only pharmacist in some rural towns or you've lost one of two pharmacists in others, that's going to severely impact on how you can run full shifts over the length of time the pharmacy remains open."
It is a similar story for GPs, according to the WA chair of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Ramya Raman.
"If we are able to take adequate precautions, then we are minimising our risk of getting COVID-19 as a condition as much as we can and reducing the risk of practices being closed down or furloughed," she said.
"Given we've got these guidelines in place, it gives us a good starting point to ensure we're taking the right precautions and the right steps."
Even still, those impacts are only expected to become more challenging to manage as case numbers grow.
Caseload and restrictions changes 'soon': McGowan
Speaking in Sydney where he is giving evidence at a defamation trial against Clive Palmer, Premier Mark McGowan said "very high caseload settings" would be introduced "very soon" in WA so that critical workers could avoid isolation.
Mr McGowan also said despite growing case numbers and people entering hospital with COVID, he remained "very hopeful" level two restrictions could be relaxed by the end of March.
"We want to get through this as quickly as we can. We know it is very, very disruptive, particularly for business, and we want to get through it as soon as we can," he said.
"So, I'm very hopeful that by the end of March we'll be out of these restrictions. Obviously, that depends upon health advice.
"But getting through this as quickly as possible would be great for business and great for the community."
Hospital peak expected in April
Also coming in the next few weeks is an expected significant increase in the number of people in hospital with the virus.
Yesterday's figure of 48 cases requiring hospital treatment is triple the number from a week ago, but less than a tenth of what is expected when hospitalisations peak.
That will come in the weeks after case numbers reaching their maximum.
The state government's Omicron modelling, released in late February, provided a rough guide to how long a person might spend in hospital with the virus.
On average, it takes six days between someone first noticing symptoms and being admitted to hospital.
If they are not seriously ill and stay on a general ward, that will be for about four days — half of what would have been expected under the Delta variant.
A person who goes to the ICU but is not ventilated can expect to stay there for two days, but a ventilated patient will generally remain for about five.
On average, it is expected a patient will spend a day on a general ward before being moved to the ICU, as well as a day on a general ward after leaving ICU if they recover.
In all, it means the peak of hospitalisations and people in ICU will likely arrive in early April.
WA's unique position, with a population that is 67.6 per cent triple-dose vaccinated, means far fewer people are expected to be hospitalised with COVID than in other states.
High vaccination rate puts WA ahead
Senior lecturer in infectious diseases at the University of WA, Barbara Nattabi, said that was despite WA likely seeing similar transmission rates to what other states had experienced.
"So we may have a high transmission rate, but our hospital rate will remain low," she said.
"Our vaccination is protecting us [and] keeping us out of hospital."
The opposition yesterday called for better plans and definitions for managing close contacts.
Mr Morey said the government would be doing the right thing as long as it was constantly considering the rules.
"We don't want any extra restrictions that we don't need," he said.
But Dr Nattabi cautioned against the government easing restrictions or close contact definitions too early — a move which could prolong the 'tail' of cases after infections peak.
"When we're making public health decisions, sometimes we don't make them only based on health … sometimes you have to factor in other things as well.
"But just know that the virus doesn't respect that. All the virus is doing is looking for someone to make sick, regardless of whatever guidelines you have."
