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Western Australia has detected two new local COVID-19 cases linked to an infected French backpacker who travelled from Queensland.
One was a close contact of the unvaccinated 25-year-old index case, who was also at a busy Perth Mess Hall event with many other travellers 10 days ago.
The other infection is another backpacker who is likely to have had contact with infected backpackers, Premier Mark McGowan told reporters on Wednesday.
Contact tracers had identified 704 close contacts with 50 still to be tested, he said.
“Of these, 44 were at the Mess Hall event (and) 16 people are unlikely to be contacted due to false or misleading information they provided through the contact register or ticket sales” Mr McGowan said.
“Police are working very hard to find these people”.
It comes as WA’s first dose vaccination rate climbs to 91.7 per cent for people over 12 and 83.6 per cent double dose.
“Our numbers continue to grow each and every day and over this period we will get further cases,” Mr McGowan said.
– AAP