WA Premier Mark McGowan says the rising tally of people with COVID-19 who are being admitted to hospital in the state is "concerning", as the number trends towards a record high.
During Western Australia's most significant wave of COVID infections almost two months ago, there was a peak of more than 90,000 active cases recorded in the state.
Around that time, on May 18, there were 327 people with COVID in hospital – the state's highest figure yet – and medical groups warned of a "system collapse" if that trajectory continued.
The number of hospital cases is now edging back towards the record, rising to 320 on Wednesday, but with total active cases sitting at around one-third of their peak.
"It is concerning, and it puts pressure on our health system. Every day, this puts pressure on our health system," Mr McGowan said about the hospital figure.
The Premier pointed to the Omicron sub-variants BA.4 and BA.5 as the main contributing factor.
"[BA.4 and BA.5 are] more infectious, and that means there's more people getting sick and more people coming to emergency departments, and more people therefore being admitted to hospital," he said.
Today's hospital figures are not a one-off either, as the rolling seven-day average approaches previous peaks.
The increase was expected after WA's Chief Health Officer (CHO) recently warned of an impending COVID wave within the next month.
But there is a worrying increase in the proportion of people catching COVID and ending up in hospital, as the flu season sweeps across the country.
When the peak number of hospital cases occurred in May, the figure was just 2 per cent of total case numbers.
But Wednesday's number of hospital cases is about 4.7 per cent of infections, with the state recording 6,880 new cases.
No recommendation on mask mandate
Despite the Premier's concern over the rising proportion of COVID infections requiring hospital admission, he said the return of any mask mandate was still not needed.
"You're perfectly entitled to if you want to take precautions to protect your own health."
But WA's nursing union slammed the government's inaction and said encouraging West Australians to wear masks without putting rules in place was pointless.
"That's like saying it would be a 'good idea' if you all stay within the speed limit when you're driving. We don't say that," Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) WA secretary Mark Olson said.
"The government needs to come out and say 'OK, in these circumstances, we need to have masks being worn'."
Fears hospitals could buckle under strain
If WA reaches the CHO's suggested peak of around 17,000 cases in coming weeks, at the current rate of increase in hospital cases, there would end up being almost 800 people in hospital with COVID.
Both the Australian Medical Association WA and the ANF have previously warned the state's health system would buckle if hospitalisation figures went much higher than 300.
"There's a lot [of] extra work involved in looking after a COVID patient. When I saw those figures … it worries me greatly," Mr Olson said.
"Times when patient safety is put at risk, I expect will go up even further."
The ANF has warned of impending industrial action from nurses if work conditions and salaries do not improve.
It comes after hundreds of health staff, police and firefighters rallied at a stop-work meeting last week demanding higher wages to meet rising inflation, interest rates and cost-of-living pressures.
