Western Australians will face restrictions if they try to travel to almost everywhere else in the country – even if they are 3,000km away from the ‘outbreak’.
Victoria declared the state a ‘red zone’ while NSW, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory all also ramping up border controls.
Panic was sparked when it was confirmed an infected man in his 50s, who contracted the virus in a hotel quarantine hotel, visited multiple locations across Perth while potentially infectious, before flying to Melbourne.
WA Premier Mark McGowan called a snap three-day lockdown starting at midnight on Saturday, for Perth and the nearby Peel area.
Shortly after, New Zealand put a hold on flights, cutting Western Australia out of the Trans-Tasman bubble.
States and Territories across the country are rushing to impose a range of new restrictions for travellers arriving from Western Australia as fears grow of a new wave of Covid cases
Residents in Perth (pictured) waiting to get tested for Covid after news of the three-day lockdown from midnight at Friday
The red zone declaration by Victoria, called at 2:01am on Saturday, means anyone who travelled from WA will have to do 14 days of hotel quarantine.
Anyone who arrived after April 17 is also required to get tested and immediately self isolate.
Victorian authorities are scrambling to trace passengers who were on board the same flight as the infected man.
All passengers who travelled on Qantas flight QF778 from Perth to Melbourne must do 14 days of quarantine and get tested.
Anyone who was at Melbourne Airport Terminal 1 on Wednesday between 7.00pm and 7.30pm must get swabbed and self-isolate until they receive a negative test.
Southlands Shopping Centre is among the Perth venues visited by a positive Covid case
NSW will ‘reflect the stay-at-home orders that apply to Western Australia’ for new arrivals from Perth and Peel.
That means travellers will need to self-isolate until midnight on Tuesday.
The health department also started screening all flights from Perth to identify those who visited venues on WA’s Covid hotspot list.
If a traveller is found to have attended any venues of concern they will be made to self-isolate.
Queensland from midnight will require any resident who has been in Perth or Peel since April 17 to enter hotel quarantine for 14 days while non-residents will require an exemption to enter and also must quarantine.
Anyone entering Queensland before midnight was required to obtain a Covid test and remain at home until 2am on April 27, only going out for essential reasons once they received a negative test.
Tasmania has declared Perth and Peel high-risk regions, with travel and quarantine rules imposed for those coming into the state who may have been in those regions.
The NT also declared Perth and the Peel region Covid-19 hotspots.
South Australia will require anyone who visited ‘hotspot’ venues listed on the WA Health Department website to get tested and isolate until they receive a negative result.
Western Australia has been cut out of the Trans-Tasman bubble. Pictured: Passenger from New Zealand arrive in Australia
A passenger wearing a facemask as she arrives into the international arrivals area at Sydney’s Kingsford Smith Airport
The man at the centre of the Covid cluster left hotel quarantine on April 17 and flew to Melbourne on April 21.
He spent time with family in the Perth suburb of Kardinya before visiting Subiaco and Northbridge.
The man also attended venues in suburbs including Canning Vale, Applecross, Crawley, and Mt Pleasant during his stay.
Authorities believe he contracted the virus through the walls of his room and was infected by a couple from into who were staying in another room across the corridor.
Another woman on the same floor was also infected.
After leaving hotel quarantine the man then infected two others he was in close contact with.
All three are now insolated and genomic sequencing is being carried out to determine the strain and source of the infection.
Anyone displaying possible symptoms for Covid is encouraged to get tested at clinics across Perth, which will all be open across the three day lockdown (stock image)
Medical staff at work at a drive through covid testing site in Inglewood, Perth, Monday, February 1, 2021