COVID in WA: Coronavirus death toll hits 300 for Western Australia

WA’s COVID death toll has hit 300 since the start of the pandemic, after reports overnight that five more lives were lost.

The deaths, which date back to May 22, come as daily COVID cases remained steady at 7,871 following 7720 the day prior.

The totals were a sharp rise of infections off the back of the WA Day long weekend, with 4849 cases recorded on Monday — marking the lowest daily total since mid-March.

The new deaths were reported to WA Health on Tuesday and include a woman in her 50s, two men and one woman in their 80s, and a man in his 70s.

COVID patients in the intensive care unit has risen to 16, from a 293 people in hospital.

ICU admissions have risen in the past week, hovering above 15 since June 5.

As of Wednesday, 438 COVID reinfections had been recorded in WA.

A COVID reinfection are defined as a case that has had more than 12 weeks between initial infection, according to a WA Health spokeswoman.

The Perth Metro recorded 6320 of the new cases, the South West 526, and the Midwest 242 and the Wheatbelt 183 and the Great Southern 167.

There were 128 new cases in the Goldfields, 55 in the Kimberley, 162 in the Pilbara, and the remaining 88 daily infections haven’t yet been assigned to a region.

The daily cases were confirmed via 4968 self-reported positive rapid antigen tests and 2903 PCR tests from a total of 10,397 conducted.

WA has 38,420 active cases and has recorded 797,041 COVID infections since the pandemic began.

WA tourism pioneer James Kwan, 78, was the first Australian to succumb to the illness after he was repatriated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan in February 2020.

WA’s first COVID death as a result of community transmission – a man in his 80s – came all the way back in April 2020.