Public COVID testing clinics are operating throughout the Christmas period with free tests also available at private clinics for people who have been directed to take one by WA Health.

More than 10,267 people were tested for the virus on Thursday and check-ins using the SafeWA App have continued to climb.

Scans have gone from 1.2 million on Wednesday, the day before it was announced there was a community case, before climbing to 1.7 million on Thursday and 2.1 million on Friday.

As of midday on Saturday the exposure list in Perth had not been updated.

Note: The exposure list in WA is constantly updated, for the most up to date version visit the Healthy WA website.

Close to 100 people staying at the Old Fire Station backpackers in Fremantle were moved to more suitable accommodation for isolating after it was found several cases linked to the WA cluster had been staying at the hostel.

Many of the hostel’s occupants had gone to the same event as the French backpacker on Sunday at Perth Mess Hall.

Anyone who attended the Perth Mess Hall event during the times broadcast by WA Health are required to get tested and isolate for 14 days.

The two latest community cases overnight were people who went to the Perth Mess Hall event.

Booster mandate enacted

A new direction under State of Emergency law was signed off on Friday by Acting Chief Health Officer Paul Armstrong which will mean workers currently mandated to get fully vaccinated will also need to have taken a booster shot by February 5.

The vaccination mandates already cover about 80 per cent of the WA workforce including the resources sector, hospitals, education staff, police, ports, airports, the meat industry and more.

The new direction states if someone covered by the mandate only becomes eligible for the booster after February 5 then they have to make sure to get their third dose within one calendar month following the waiting period between the second and third jabs.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt announced during the week the gap between second and third jabs would be progressively shortened from the start of January from five months to four and then three.

Wastewater testing expanded

Testing across the six metropolitan wastewater treatment plants will now be done twice a week in response to the COVID-19 situation in Perth.

Dr Armstrong said the measure was to help track the potential spread from Case 1133.

Wastewater testing will also be expanded to the Ngaanyatjarra Lands in the Goldfields near the Northern Territory border due to outbreaks in the other jurisdiction.

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Testing will also be extended in Kununurra and Halls Creek from a four-week trial to six months and also cover the community of Warmun, which lies between the two towns, that is accessible along the remote Buntine Highway to the NT’s Timber Creek and Katherine which have had outbreaks.

Vaccination rates in the Kimberley, Pilbara and Goldfields have been lower than other regions in WA but progress has been made in smaller communities to get the state’s vulnerable Aboriginal population fully vaccinated.

Border changes

Queensland and South Australia were reclassified ‘high risk’ states at midnight meaning it is even tougher to get into WA from the two eastern states.

There is no free travel from any states into WA with the lowest level of restrictions currently enforced on Tasmania and Northern Territory meaning travellers have to self-isolate for 14 days on arrival in WA.

WA is scheduled to bring down its interstate borders on February 5 when it reaches 90 per cent double vaccination but if the current COVID-19 cluster continues to spread the date could change.