Families reunite for first time in almost two years as WA reopens border

Australians are now free to travel to every state and territory after Western Australia's hard border restrictions ended.

Passengers arrive at Perth Domestic Airport and are embraced by loved ones as the state's borders reopened after being closed for almost two years. Source: AAP / AAP

Australia is reunited once more, with Western Australia relaxing its hard border with the rest of the country after almost two years.

Despite Western Australia recording its highest daily case numbers of COVID-19 since the pandemic began, the state reopened to the east after almost 700 days of border restrictions.

About 5,000 people will arrive in the state on the first day of relaxed travel, split across 22 domestic and five international flights.

Tens of thousands of travellers are expected to follow in coming weeks.

After spending almost 700 days behind a hard border during the coronavirus pandemic, WA is finally welcoming vaccinated travellers. Source: AAP / Richard Wainwright

One of the first travellers was Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese, who spent the day in Perth.

The Labor leader said it was exciting to see people reunited after long periods of border closures.

"It has been a tough period, but Western Australians have fared much better than overwhelmingly the rest of the country," Mr Albanese said.

"Part of that is because of the difficult decisions which have been made to prioritise keeping people safe."

Prime Minister Scott Morrison was set to visit Western Australia, but remains isolating in Sydney after testing positive to COVID-19 earlier this week.

Mr Morrison had met with Nauruan President Lionel Aingimea earlier on the same day he tested positive.

However, following tests, Mr Aingimea and four members of the presidential delegation travelling with him tested negative to the virus.

The reopening of the border comes on the same day the state recorded a one-day high of 2423 infections and one death.

Premier Mark McGowan originally planned to reopen in February but this was delayed due to the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 within Australia over the summer.

WA was the last jurisdiction in Australia to open its border to air travellers but there are some restrictions, including a requirement to be triple vaccinated, complete a travel entry pass and wear masks in the terminal.

On Thursday, there were a further 39 fatalities from COVID-19 nationally, with 23 in Victoria, nine from NSW, six from Queensland as well as the one in WA.

Almost 30,000 cases were detected in the latest reporting period, including 11,338 in NSW, 7093 in Victoria, 6479 in Queensland, 2423 in WA, 1117 in Tasmania and 690 in the ACT.