There are currently no COVID-19 directives in Western Australia, with the state of emergency period having ended on 4 November 2022.
Businesses are encouraged to take responsibility for managing COVID-19 in their workplaces and may choose to adopt their own policies or work health and safety arrangements, including:
- Mask wearing requirements
- Work from home and isolation for people who have tested positive to COVID-19
Workers are encouraged to discuss health requirements with their employer.
Health recommendations
While WA’s COVID restrictions have ended, people are strongly encouraged to take the following measures to protect themselves, their families, colleagues and businesses:
- Wear a face mask in crowded indoor spaces, where physical distancing is not possible, or when unwell.
- Stay up to date with both the flu and COVID-19 vaccines, with fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine encouraged for everyone aged 30 years and over, three months after your last dose or infection.
- Get tested if you feel unwell, including if it has been 28 days since you recovered from a previous COVID-19 case.
- Keep up good hygiene habits such as washing and sanitising your hands regularly.
Mandatory isolation ends
Mandatory isolation is no longer required for people with COVID-19, except for employees in high-risk settings including hospitals and aged care.
The pandemic leave payment ended on 14 October, except for workers who are still subject to isolation requirements.
Mask wearing
Masks are strongly encouraged in crowded indoors spaces and where physical distancing isn’t possible.
Proof of vaccination requirements
Proof of vaccination is no longer required for employees or customers.
Close contact rules
Mandatory isolation for people with COVID and close contacts ended on 14 October 2022. Close contacts are unable to visit public hospitals for 7 days after becoming a close contact or returning a positive test.
A close contact is defined as:
- A household member or intimate partner of a person with COVID-19, who has had contact with them during their infectious period.
- Someone who has had close personal interaction with a person with COVID-19 during their infectious period, where they spent 4 hours of cumulative contact with them in a residential setting (including a home, residential care facility, boarding school, maritime vessel, or other accommodation facility) in any 24-hour period, where masks have been removed by both people during the period of contact.
- Someone who is informed by WA Health that they are a close contact.
Close contacts do not need to isolate, but should:
- Notify their employer or educational institution that they are a close contact
- Monitor for COVID-like symptoms and test for COVID-19 as soon as they can after developing symptoms
- Stay home if they have symptoms, even if the test result is negative, to protect others from infection.
Staying safe
COVID-19 is still in our community. Everyone should:
- wash or sanitise hands regularly
- wear a mask if required, if unwell, or if in crowded indoor spaces where you cannot physically distance
- test for COVID-19 if experiencing any symptoms and stay home until you have recovered - free RATs are available at drive-through collection points, vaccination clinics, offices of Members of Parliament, regional testing clinics, and pop-ups at train stations and shopping centres
- stay up to date with vaccinations
- stay home when unwell until symptoms resolve.
Travel into WA
The following settings for travel into WA now apply:
- Returning unvaccinated Australians and permanent residents are no longer required to quarantine on return to WA.
- Unvaccinated Australian citizens and permanent residents can leave and enter Australia without an individual travel exemption. Travellers entering or leaving Australia do not require a negative pre-departure test and cruise vessels can enter Australian territory.
- The G2G Pass requirement for arrivals into Western Australia has been removed.
- Vaccination requirements for interstate travellers have been removed.
Travel to remote Aboriginal communities is no longer restricted. However, communities may choose to still apply their own restrictions.