‘Paradise’: Australian states free of COVID resist opening

By TRISTAN LAVALETTE and ROD McGUIRK
Associated Press

PERTH, Australia (AP) — Anyone could be forgiven for forgetting a pandemic ever happened on Australia’s west coast. While the cities of Sydney and Melbourne in the east have been in strict lockdown, the Western Australia state capital Perth has largely remained open for business behind its closed border. Masks are rarely seen and bars and nightclubs are open. But states that remain virtually COVID-free, including Western Australia, are now under mounting pressure to share the nation’s pandemic pain by opening their borders in the interests of opening the national economy. But new freedoms for some parts of Australia could mean soaring COVID-19 cases and unwelcome restrictions in others.