COVID in WA: Daily case numbers fall by hundreds, five elderly people die with virus

WA’s daily count of new COVID cases has fallen by hundreds but five deaths have been reported, all elderly people.

A total of 4394 new cases were recorded overnight, down 355 from the prior day’s count.

The five deaths — two men and a woman in their 90s, and two women in their 80s — date back to May 24 but were only reported to WA Health on Friday.

They bring the State’s total death toll to 370.

The number of cases in hospital has risen by three to 242, with the number of those in intensive care remaining eight.

The count of active cases has fallen by 36, however, to 28,412.

Notwithstanding the odd blip higher, WA’s daily tally has been generally tracking downwards since peaking at more than 17,000 around mid-May.

With the use of rapid antigen tests outpacing PCR tests for some time now, the State Government announced on Thursday it would wind down four metropolitan PCR testing clinics from July 15 amid waning demand.

The decision would return 121 full-time equivalent staff to hospitals, it said.

WA has recorded 880,808 cases since the pandemic began.