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COVID in WA: Cases dip slightly as slow rollback of restrictions stunt Perth’s liveability score

The West Australian
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COVID cases have dropped in WA.
Camera IconCOVID cases have dropped in WA. Credit: DIEGO FEDELE/AAPIMAGE

WA has recorded a slight dip in COVID cases overnight as the State’s slow rollback of restrictions is blamed for stunting Perth’s liveability.

There were 4749 new infections as of Friday, down from 5351 on Thursday.

It brings WA’s active caseload to 28,448.

The number of people in hospital dropped to 239 patients, with eight in intensive care.

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A man in his 80s died with the virus on June 17, but it was only reported to WA Health on Thursday.

Of the new cases, 3020 were from RATs and 1729 were from PCR tests.

A total of 6990 PCR tests were conducted on Thursday and the State’s total infection number has reached 876,505.

It comes as Perth was revealed to have plummeted on the global liveability ladder due to its slow rollback of COVID restrictions.

The city was last year ranked the sixth most liveable place in the world.

But this year Perth slid to number 32.

The Global Liveability Index, done by the Economic Intelligence Unit, looked at the stability, healthcare, culture, environment, education and infrastructure to find the world’s best cities.

Vienna in Austria came out on top, followed by Copenhagen in Denmark. Zurich in Switzerland and Calgary in Canada tied in third place.

The report stated that those down under — and their neighbours across the ditch — benefited in early 2021 when COVID vaccines were scarce, due to closed borders keeping infection rates down.

However, this changed as the highly infectious Omicron infiltrated both countries towards the end of last year.

It meant Aussie and Kiwi cities no longer had a “COVID advantage” over well-vaccinated European and Canadian cities.

Premier Mark McGowan on Friday said the list was “silly” and “dumb” and wanted whoever did the survey to “do another analysis”.

COVID UPDATE:

Region Active (new to 6pm Thursday night)

Metropolitan 23,239 (3,813)

Goldfields 444 (66)

Great Southern 577 (102)

Kimberley 184 (31)

Midwest 864 (133)

Pilbara 405 (57)

South West 1,724 (324)

Wheatbelt 610 (102)

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