Covid death toll rises as businesses call for close contact rules to be scrapped

The state has recorded another Covid related death overnight as Tasmanian workers renew their calls for close contact rules to be reviewed. HAVE YOUR SAY + LATEST >>

Tasmania has recorded another 1,414 new cases overnight as the state’s active infections drop for the second day in a row to 12,676.

Premier and Minister for Health Jeremy Rockliff confirmed this morning that a woman in her 90s had died with the virus on Friday at a Residential Aged Care Facility in the North.

“I would like to extend my sincere condolences to the family, friends, and loved ones of the woman who has sadly passed away.” he said.

“There are currently 42 people in hospital with COVID and of these, 22 are being treated specifically for COVID. There is currently one person being cared for in the ICU.”

The Premier has encouraged people most at risk from the virus to make a booking to receive their second booster shot.

“This includes those 65 years and over, residents of aged care and disability facilities, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders aged 50 and over, and people who are severely immunocompromised.”

Up to 150,000 Tasmanians are now eligible to receive the ‘winter dose’ and are being urged to get the flu shot alongside the vaccine at their local GP or pharmacy.

‘Frustrating’: Fresh calls for close contact rules to be scrapped

Covid continues to disrupt workplaces with unions saying Tasmanian workers are being forced to choose between going to work sick or losing pay and business wanting close contact rules reviewed.

The teachers’ union says some schools are worried they will not make it through the coming week before Easter with up to 86 staff absent recently from one school.

Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Michael Bailey said it was frustrating for workers to have to stay home if they were close contacts of Covid cases.

“I’m hearing continually of people being off work who don’t have Covid but are close contacts,” he said.

“I have a board member who has four children who got Covid one by one and he hasn’t tested positive but has had to work from home for the past three weeks.

“It’s frustrating when people get negative RATs but can’t go back to work.

TCCI CEO Michael Bailey speaks to the media on parliament Lawns in Hobart.

“At the end of the day we have high vaccination rate and low hospitalisations.”

Mr Bailey said one Launceston restaurant had to close for a week affecting 40 staff which would have been “devastating for casual workers”.

Unions Tasmania secretary Jess Munday said she was hearing of “widespread disruption” for workers in the public and private sectors.

“There is the added stress on workers now, having lived through over two years of this pandemic, who are fast running out of sick leave and eating into annual leave because of multiple instances of being a close contact, having the virus, or caring for someone has it,” Ms Munday said.

“We need to remember that over a quarter of Tasmania’s workforce is casual which means they have no sick leave at all.

“Many permanent employees only have the bare minimum of 10 days sick leave which gets used very quickly if you and someone else in your house catches Covid.

SUN TAS. Jess Munday of Unions Tas. Female Union leaders in Tasmania. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

“Unions continue to fear that people are again being placed in impossible positions where they are forced to choose between coming to work sick or losing pay.”

Unions had raised concerns, she said, that the level of support from government was too limited.

Australian Education Union Tasmanian president David Genford said stress levels for teachers had “never been so high”.

“The impact is enormous, some schools are concerned they won’t make it through next week, many teachers are at breaking point, relief co-ordinators are losing their home lives altogether and there’s no additional support and resources from government at all,” Mr Genford said.

“We had up to 86 staff absences in one school and several schools had over 50 staff absences last week.

“The term 2 Covid plan still doesn’t offer a proper ventilation audit, let alone a timeline on when upgrades to classrooms will occur to ensure safe ventilation through winter.

AEU figures showed teacher absences were disrupting students’ learning.

Mr Genford said the AEU understood staff absences across Tasmanian public schools totalled in the thousands last week, with thousands more students also absent as well.

The state recorded another 1,803 Covid cases on Saturday, bringing the total number of active infections to 12,676 across Tasmania.

38 people have been hospitalised with the virus but only 16 patients are being treated specifically for Covid.