Coronavirus lockdown for Perth and South West leaves WA facing a week like no other

The pack of masks made it clear what was about to come.

About five minutes before the Premier and Health Minister walked in yesterday for a media conference that would bring life as we know it to a temporary halt in most of WA, government staffers asked all the journalists, photographers and camera operators present to don face masks — a first even for the pandemic era in WA.

Then Mark McGowan came in, masked up, to deliver the concerning news.

“At about midnight we received a positive COVID-19 test result,”…