Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan is blaming "oversight" for not disclosing that two crew disembarked a coronavirus-hit livestock ship.
The Australian crew members, a vet from Sydney and a stock manager from Busselton in the state's southwest, had been on board the Al Messilah for up to eight months.
They got off the carrier after it docked at Fremantle Port last week and were allowed to travel home to quarantine under existing protocols before 25 cases were discovered on board.
Asked if their disembarkation should have been made public sooner, Mr McGowan said: "It was an oversight that we didn't release that information.
"My view is we release as much information as possible as quickly as possible so the public is fully informed," he said.
"Clearly yesterday we had numerous issues and we didn't release that information. We probably should have."
Mr McGowan said both the vet and stock manager had returned negative test results and were asymptomatic.
"We don't have any concerns that they are positive for coronavirus," the premier said.
"The woman from Busselton is now hotel quarantining as a precaution and that's what she wanted to do."
It came as the latest 24 cases confirmed aboard the Al Messilah were included in Tuesday's official case tally.
WA Health said 36 of the Al Messilah's 52 crew have now moved into hotel quarantine, leaving a skeleton crew of 16 on the vessel.
One person has also tested positive aboard the Key Integrity bulk carrier which has arrived in Fremantle from Geraldton.
That case will be included in Wednesday's figures.
There have now been six COVID-19 outbreaks on ships arriving into WA, including four in the last month.
The premier said on Monday that the continued arrival of ships carrying crew infected with COVID-19 is one of WA's "weakest links" and greatest risks.
"We have about 30 vessels arriving at WA ports each and every day which goes to show just how significant the risk is to our state," he said.
"We need a coordinated international approach to this and we need our federal government to take international action."
Forty-four active cases remain in the state.
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