“We were trying to stay calm, however the reality of what was happening started to set in, and I became a mess.”
Ms Deniese said couples getting married needed to be aware they could lose large sums of money if deemed a close contact and to leave allowances over last-minute cancellations.
“We had to call them and advise them [the wedding venue], that due to the current law we couldn’t attend our own wedding. This is when they said they would keep 80 per cent and only be willing to credit us 20 per cent if we rescheduled,” she said.
“Not only have we lost 80 per cent of the $7000, but we’ve had to now use up all of our personal leave combined with annual leave and two days of unpaid leave.
“I have formally requested a petition be put forward to parliament to establish clear laws for events such as weddings that are cancelled due to COVID – specifically when following WA Health directions to self-isolate.
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“The state government had two years to have these laws in place, and they don’t exist… the cost is just too high.”
She said thankfully all other vendors booked had no problems with rescheduling to another date.
Some other West Australians with important events coming up are taking active measures to reduce their interactions with others in an effort to avoid becoming a positive case or close contact.
Curtin University infectious diseases expert Archie Clements said there was no “hard and fast” rule when it came to people trying to navigate life to ensure they can attend events.
“The rules around isolating when you are a close contact are already pretty light, but I think obviously as the case numbers start going down, then it’s likely that they will further loosen some of those close contact isolation rules, which could possibly benefit people hosting bigger events,” he said.
“However I think there will be more than one wave of Omicron and that likely means the rules will also change as case numbers change.
“The strategies are really to prevent a super spread event that leads to a big spike in transmission in the community when it comes to bigger events like weddings.”
Changes to quarantine requirements for household contacts of a positive case came into effect on Thursday which only required household contacts to isolate for the same seven days as the positive case, pending a negative COVID-19 test at the end of the period.
