The Premier has defended his decision to bring back the hard border with New South Wales over a coronavirus cluster in Sydney’s northern beaches.

Unless travellers meet strict exemption criteria they won’t be permitted to enter WA.

Mark McGowan says he understands it will be hard for many families who were seeking a Christmas reunion, but the risks posed by the outbreak are just too great.

“Imagine if we had cases come in and we had to shut down parts of our state, or parts of our economy, or entire suburbs or businesses,” the Premier said.

“It would be appalling and I desperately don’t want that to happen.”

Meanwhile the president of the Australian Medical Association in WA wants our COVID-19 testing capabilities boosted.

Hundreds of people rushed to clinics last week after the border arrangements were adjusted, and some were turned away on Thursday evening due to lack of tests available.

Dr Andrew Miller says it’s important everyone who needs a test gets one quickly.

“There shouldn’t be long waits for testing, we should have the capacity to rapidly and effectively ramp that up,” he said.

“We may need to get to the stage where we are testing thousands and thousand of people each day.”