6PR Breakfast host Gareth Parker says Mark McGowan is finally making some sense after confirming COVID-19 restrictions in WA would ease from Thursday March 31.

He said the WA Premier’s new focus on hospital and intensive care unit admissions in relation to the impact of the virus was overdue and welcome.

“Hospitalisation and ICU rates are the best measures to watch as to the impact of the virus in Western Australia,” Mr McGowan said yesterday.

Parker said that was the point of the majority of Western Australians getting vaccinated.

“It’s nice to hear the Premier now acknowledging it and talking about it,” Parker told Breakfast listeners on Friday.

The scrapping of SafeWA check-ins at venues where evidence of vaccination is not required was also necessary.

“Now, let’s be honest, a great many people have stopped doing that anyway haven’t they… and they probably stopped doing it weeks ago,” Parker said.

“There doesn’t appear that there’s much contract tracing happening on those sorts of venues anyway, so it’s a requirement that has sort of been made redundant anyway by peoples’ behaviour.”

WA has seen more COVID-19 cases cumulatively than had been anticipated, but Mr McGowan said hospitalisations and ICU admissions were below predictions.

Tap PLAY below to hear more from Gareth Parker on the new measures.

Click here to see what changes come into effect from next Thursday.