A Covid-Free Australian State Weighs Reopening to the World

SYDNEY—Australia’s most remote state has kept Covid-19 out by largely disconnecting from the outside world and banning many Australians from visiting. Now, it is weighing whether to reopen its borders if that also means letting the virus in. For the 2.7 million residents of Western Australia, life looks a lot like it did before the pandemic. They can go without face masks, rub shoulders at sports games, and crowd pubs for a drink after work. Since the pandemic began, the state’s economy has grown at nearly twice the rate of Australia as a whole.

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