Slow COVID vaccine rate could see Pilbara locked down while rest of WA opens to the world

The Pilbara’s lagging vaccination rates could see the region shut off from the rest of Australia as part of the State Government’s plan to re-open WA to international travel. WA Premier Mark McGowan revealed on Friday Western Australia would reopen to domestic and international travellers when the State reached a 90 per cent vaccination rate. There are currently 79.3 per cent of West Australians aged 12 and above who have received at least one dose while 63.7 per cent were fully vaccinated. The Pilbara meanwhile is the worst-performing region in Australia, with just 28 per cent of the region’s population fully vaccinated as of November 1. Mr McGowan said intrastate boundaries may need to be introduced in areas where vaccine uptake was not sufficient to be considered safe to reopen. Several leaders in the Pilbara however have raised concerns. Regional Development Australia Pilbara chief executive Tony Simpson said it would be a step backwards. “While I understand the argument that we’ve got to get more people double vaccinated, it would certainly be harder to recover from it,” he said. “It would put a big stop on all developments in terms of putting everything back in a timeframe, a timeframe that will be unknown, which puts us back to where we were over year ago when we had regional lockdowns and couldn’t move in-between.” Karratha and Districts Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Tanya Dodd said intrastate borders would not help fill the mass vacancies in Karratha. “I’d get people emailing me their job vacancies every week asking us if we can help them in anyway and we do refer them on to jobs and skills centre but there’s only so many people that are here that can work,” she said. “Our unemployment rate is less than two per cent and there’s plenty of jobs out there.” Pilbara MLA Kevin Michel said there was a clear message for everyone in the Pilbara to get vaccinated. “We need everyone playing their part to push the State’s vaccination rate up to 90 per cent,” he said. “As the Premier has said some additional public health measures may need to be put in place to protect vulnerable communities, including those with lower rates of vaccination until they reach satisfactory levels of vaccination. “The State Government will to do everything we can to protect our Pilbara communities and our local industry as we ease our controlled border.” Town of Port Hedland Mayor Peter Carter urged residents to get vaccinated to avoid lockdowns. “Everyone knows how important the Pilbara is to both the State and Federal Government. It's a very wealthy area and no one wants to see it locked down,” he said. “This is what is going to happen, so we need to get our vaccination rates up as high as we can otherwise that's what's going to happen. “To say we've dodged a bullet over the last 18 months would be understatement.” Mr Carter said residents needed to get vaccinated as quickly as possible.