WA bans COVID hotel staff from second jobs

A ban on hotel quarantine security guards and other staff working second jobs in Western Australia is set to come into effect from next week.

It comes as WA again recorded no new local COVID-19 cases after a breach involving a hotel guard plunged more than two million people into lockdown last week.

The guard, who unwittingly roamed the streets of Perth while infectious, had also been employed as a rideshare driver, although authorities soon established that he had not worked in that job since becoming infected.

Premier Mark McGowan says all four providers of hotel quarantine staff have signed contract variation letters enforcing the new ban, expected to begin next Monday.

It will apply to all workers in “high-risk” situations, including guards, cleaners and catering workers, and will be softened by a 40 per cent pay increase.

The government had been criticised for dragging its feet on the change which has already been in place in Victoria for several months.

“Obviously people working in hotel quarantine still have lives,” Mr McGowan told reporters on Wednesday.

“They still go to the shops, they still go to schools with their children, they still might visit their parents. All of those things are difficult to stop.”

WA recorded no new local cases on Wednesday as the number of tests since the start of the lockdown climbed to almost 90,000.

Two new cases were detected in hotel quarantine.