27 Tasmanian GPs call for total shut down of all work-places

Twenty-seven Tasmanian GPs have called for a complete lockdown of all work-places as part of a three-point plan to tackle coronavirus.

TASMANIAN general practitioners have called for a complete lockdown of all work-places as part of a three-point plan to tackle coronavirus.

In the letter to Premier Peter Gutwein, signed by 27 GPs, doctors called for a two-month complete shutdown of Tasmanian schools and workplaces, enforced hotel quarantine for new arrivals, and widespread testing.

“This has not been done as a criticism. It’s there as a supporting aid to help load the gun so the Premier can pull the trigger with doctors and fellow Tasmanians behind him,” Launceston GP Jerome Muir Wilson told the Mercury. The letter applauds the Government’s enforced 14-day isolation period for new arrivals but said “this will only work to its full effect if followed through with other measures”.

As part of the suggested shutdown, the letter said exceptions should be made for health facilities undertaking urgent matters, pharmacies for deliveries and supermarkets for online-booked pick-ups. Suggested measures include fines for breaking isolation or failing to get tested for coronavirus when instructed to.

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The letter also called for a suspension of rates, levies and utility payments, and more protective equipment for health workers. It said implementing those measures would lead to a positive outcome.

“We can then re-open society on the island provided we are COVID-19 free for 14 days and have the strictest border measures in Australia,” the letter read.

“We can no longer rely on trust and education as it only takes one person to ruin it for the rest of us and the 14-day clock to restart.”

Mr Gutwein said the next stage of restrictions “will be even more severe measures”.

“Those measures are being contemplated. Moving to a hard lockdown is being contemplated,” he said.

“We want to do everything we can to ensure Tasmanians are being protected, that their health, wellbeing and safety is of absolute paramount priority.

“We need people to work with us. I want to ask people, to do everything they possibly can. [They should] ensure they use proper, appropriate distancing … We will take more steps.”

It comes after a letter signed by more than 100 Tasmanian GPs was sent to the State Government calling for it to close schools, places of worship, pubs, gyms and other public places to combat coronavirus.