The Health Minister says he’s not interested in a war of words with New South Wales over what is the best strategy to deal with COVID-19 outbreaks.

Premier Mark McGowan’s elimination strategy has copped criticism from his eastern state counterparts, who say it’s not possible.

Roger Cook tried to clarify yesterday that the Premier means elimination of community transmission.

“Some people describe elimination as getting rid of the disease all together,” he said.

“We will never do that because we obviously have Australians returning from overseas and so the disease will obviously be present in our system.

“Others describe that as suppression.

“I believe that what we need to do is look at the effectiveness of this strategy and that is eliminate any community spread of the disease.”

The Health Minister says he’s focused on keeping West Aussies safe.

“I’m not here to judge New South Wales, I’m here to make sure that we protect West Australians,” he said.

“New South Wales are doing the best they can under the circumstances that they have.

“In Western Australia we have a different set of circumstances and we are trying to do our bit to meet the national goal of zero presence of the disease in the community