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Western Australia has recorded another COVID-19 fatality with a passenger from the Artania cruise ship dying in hospital.
Key points:
- The German man aged in his 70s was one of the first cases on the Artania
- Two more positive tests in WA have taken the state's total to 548
- But the number of active COVID-19 cases has fallen by five to just 76
The passenger, a man from Germany aged in his 70s, died at Sir Charles Gairdner hospital yesterday.
It takes the number of coronavirus deaths from the Artania to four and the total number of fatalities in WA to eight.
After three days this week with no new WA cases, two more positive tests have been recorded in the state over the past 24 hours, increasing the total number of recorded cases to 548.
Health Minister Roger Cook said the Artania passenger was one of the first taken off the cruise ship when it docked at Fremantle Port a month ago.
"So obviously he's been in ICU for a long time now," he said.
"I pass on my condolences to his family and friends and everyone in Germany, our heartfelt condolences in their time of loss.
"Obviously this is a really difficult period for both his family, but also for the health staff who provided care for this gentleman … our very heartfelt thanks goes out to those healthcare workers who cared for him over this period of time."
Mr Cook said the man's death was a reminder of how lethal the virus was.
"This is a reminder of how we cannot for a moment be complacent in the fight against against COVID-19," he said.
"It takes lives, it takes loved ones from us and we must make sure that we maintain our vigilance at all times
The Artania was responsible for 81 of WA's total cases.
One of them, a 42-year-old Filipino crew member, was believed to be the youngest person to die from the disease in Australia.
The cruise ship finally left Fremantle last Saturday, carrying 411 crew and passengers.
WA active cases drop to 76
The two new WA cases are a male and a female aged between 25 and 61, both from the metropolitan area.
One is related to overseas travel, with the person testing positive after they returned from the United Kingdom in mid-April and were quarantined in a city hotel.
The second is still being investigated.
The number of active cases in the state has dropped below 80, with 76 people now recovering from the illness in WA.
Of the active cases, 20 are in hospital with four of them in intensive care.
Mr Cook said there were still a number of cases where the source of the virus was not known.
"They represent a wide group of people, that is those for whom we think represent a low public health risk, but we can't actually nail down the particular individual that they've caught the virus from," he said.
"Obviously we'd like to have zero unknown sources, but what we have seen through our extensive testing is very low community-based transmission and, as a result of that, I'm still confident we're on top of any community-based transmission."
Warning for Anzac Day long weekend
With the Anzac Day long weekend ahead, Mr Cook urged West Australians to keep doing the right thing.
What the experts are saying about coronavirus:
"I know there's a temptation to want to go out, socialise, be with friends and loved ones, but can I just appeal to all West Australians, we must continue to observe good social distancing, practise good personal hygiene," he said.
"It's everyone working together as a community that has actually got to the point where we have these extremely low numbers every day.
"Now is not the time to be complacent, now is the time to really focus and make sure that as a community we get on top of this virus together."
Mr Cook said there were still about 1,000 tests being done each day in WA.
"We're testing everyone who is symptomatic … that is the best place for us to be in," he said.
"As I've announced before, we will move into a period of time where we start doing asymptomatic testing as part of the National Public Health Surveillance Plan.
"This will be a targeted campaign, looking at police and healthcare workers, teachers and students, and FIFO workers in the first instance. We'll provide more details of those in the coming days."
Contact tracing 'paid off'
Mr Cook said contact tracing of cases was playing an important part in fighting the spread of the virus, with more than 170 people across the state working in that area.
"Every time there is a confirmed case, trained contact tracers will contact the person, interview them, get all their details of all the people they have come into contact with while they have remained infectious," he said.
Ben Scalley from the WA Public Health Operations said calls to people who had been diagnosed with the virus could take hours, because their entire movements had to be mapped.
"There is a lot of skill in prompting people, asking them to look through their financial records about where they may have been," he said.
Calls were then made to other people who the infected person had come into contact with, describing it at the height of the WA outbreak as a "very difficult time".
"We've made thousands of phone calls … long hours and long shifts, but I think it's really paid off now and we're seeing the results of it," he said.
Dr Scalley said for some people the calls were "out of the blue", because they may not have even known the infected person.
They were then told they may have to stay in quarantine for 14 days, but he said very few people had been difficult.
"The vast majority of people, even though that's a very difficult position to be put in, realise the importance more broadly to the population across Western Australia," he said.
"Obviously people are worried for their own safety, and their family's safety … [but] there have been very, very few issues."
What you need to know about coronavirus:
Topics: covid-19, infectious-diseases-other, respiratory-diseases, diseases-and-disorders, health, law-crime-and-justice, courts-and-trials, perth-6000, wa
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