'Paradise': Australian states free of COVID resist opening

PERTH, Australia (AP) — It can seem like Australia’s west coast has almost entirely avoided COVID-19.

A mask-free nightlife is thriving and huge crowds are turning out for sporting events, including 53,000 rugby fans who crammed into a Perth stadium to watch New Zealand’s All Blacks defeat Australia’s Wallabies on a recent sunny Sunday.

“We are in paradise,” said one of those fans, Andrea Williams, who is all for the region continuing to defy the federal government and maintain strict border restrictions that keep it separated from the pandemic raging in large parts of the rest of Australia.

While the cities of Sydney and Melbourne in the east have been in strict lockdown with a surge of virus cases, the Western Australia state capital of Perth has largely remained open for business — behind its shut borders.

But the relish with which many are enjoying themselves in the west might be tinged with a sense that their COVID-free lifestyle could be coming to an end.

States that remain virtually COVID-free, including Western Australia and Queensland, face growing pressure to open their borders, with the national government arguing that internal border restrictions are a drag on the national economy.

Industry groups complain that border closures create critical shortages of labor and supplies, impede trade, inflate construction costs and constrain business opportunities. Damage to companies’ bottom lines also translates to less tax revue for the federal government.

Yet because Australia has one of the lowest vaccination rates of any wealthy country, reopening could mean soaring COVID-19 cases in the west and unwelcome restrictions.

At the Perth stadium, bottles of sanitizer were among the few reminders of the delta variant that is overtaking parts of eastern Australia and...