Perth / Peel Region COVID-19 Restrictions

As you may have heard already, overnight the West Australian government has issued a health direction aimed at limiting the spread of COVID-19. This has implications for building surveyors and to assist you to understand what is required, we have prepared the following summary of information from the directions issued.

You are required to stay home unless you need to:

• work because it's not possible to work from home. Refer to the list of essential workers
• shop for essentials like groceries, medicine and necessary supplies, including click and collect, within 5km from your home or closest practicable location
• attend to medical or health care needs including emergencies, compassionate requirements and looking after the vulnerable;
• exercise with a maximum of two adults from the same household (children under 18 years are not counted), limited to one hour per day within a 5km radius from home, and masks must be worn, except for vigorous exercise.
• receive a COVID-19 vaccine, or
• leave due to an emergency (e.g. emergencies, fleeing domestic violence).

Masks:

Wearing of masks is mandatory indoors (except at home) and in outdoor public areas (with exceptions for vigorous exercise) and if you are using public transport. This direction also applies to anyone who is outside the Perth and Peel regions but who has been in those regions since Sunday 27 June.

Who can work and why:

Essential workers are any persons whose work is critical to the continued operation of specified activities. The following kinds of work may be attended in person if the work cannot practicably be undertaken from home:

• Essential infrastructure and services without which the safety, health or welfare of the community or a section of the community would be endangered
• Government or local government services
• Building, maintenance or construction services where services are immediately necessary for safety or welfare reasons, critical maintenance and to avoid significant losses
• Administrative services provided by an employer to enable its employees to work from home
• Organisations that provide urgent services necessary for the health and safety of any person, animal or premises

At this stage, there are no specific directions related to the undertaking of building inspections. AIBS will advise further should this information become available. We note that in other jurisdictions where similar directions have been issued, building inspections and other activities where a building surveyor is required to attend multiple sites have been permitted with a COVID-Safe plan in place.

Be COVID-Safe:

In general, this means taking additional precautions to ensure that building surveyors are not likely to spread the contagion should they become infected. Wherever possible, it is important to limit the number of sites each person needs to attend, to wear appropriate protective equipment and sanitise hands and high touch surfaces regularly. It may also be necessary to screen workers regularly.

How long will this last:

The restrictions that have been implemented are expected to be reviewed in coming days and if the threat of spread mitigates as hoped, restrictions are set to ease on Saturday 3 July.

More information:

The details of what has been directed can be found here.

We trust this is of assistance to you. If you believe there is anything more we could do, such as advocate for a change to mitigate impacts on your work, please let us know.