The national president of the Australian Medical Association has backed WA’s snap lockdown as the best way to deal with the virus.

The recent outbreak around Sydney’s Northern Beaches shut down some suburbs for weeks and saw businesses affected across Sydney.

The approach in WA has been to go hard and fast, with Perth and Peel plunged into a strict lockdown for at least 72 hours.

Dr Omar Khorshid told 6PR’s Gareth Parker there are benefits to going hard early.

“It’s certainly not the only way to manage it, if you look at New South wales they have taken a completely different approach,” he said

“WA doesn’t seem to have that tolerance for risk, and this short sharp lockdown has actually worked and it now seems to be the preferred approach for several of our state Premiers.

“If it’s only three days, it is a kick in the teeth, but it’s one we can recover from.”

The Premier revealed yesterday it’s likely some restrictions will remain in place even if the hard lockdown lifts tonight as planned.

Dr Khorshid believes if more cases are discovered today it is likely the lockdown will be extended.

“If they find one or more new cases today that will mean a whole series of new people they need to contact, new places they need to advertise.”

It’s expected an announcement will be made later this morning once testing and tracing data has been put under the microscope.

So far just two people are known to have been infected by the Victorian man who contracted the virus in hotel quarantine and spent five days in the community.

Click play to hear the full interview.